Consciousness Creates Reality: How Awareness Shapes Your World

Consciousness Creates Reality: How Awareness Shapes Your World

From Autopilot to Authorship: How a Small Shift in Awareness Rewires Your Nervous System, Calms Reactions, and Opens New Doors

What if the most powerful force shaping your life isn’t your schedule, your bank account, or your past—but the way your awareness touches every moment?

In this episode of the Self Realized, Shatter Your Limits podcast with me, Linton Bergsen, you'll explore how a small shift—from being the thought to noticing the thought—reclaims choice, calms your nervous system, and opens doors you couldn’t see before. Through story, guided experiments, and simple practices, you’ll see how consciousness becomes the quiet architect behind better conversations, clearer decisions, and more aligned action.

You’ll test a three‑part exercise that moves from worry, to gratitude, to the observer, so you can feel how attention rewires your experience in real time. You'll break down the Pattern Catcher—an easy way to spot early signals, take one conscious breath, and interrupt reactions before they run your day.

Then, you'll tackle identity‑level change by rewriting limiting I am statements into living directions that grow with you, shifting labels like “I’m anxious” into intentional paths like “I’m learning to regulate and respond.” These tools aren’t theory; they fit into busy lives and work inside real pressures.

To make awareness a habit, use a compact daily framework:

• A two‑minute morning intention
• A midday story check
• An evening review that celebrates catches and learns from misses

Add three Possibility Questions to expand options when fear narrows your view and notice how the same circumstances begin to meet a different you.

By choosing presence over autopilot, you become the author of your responses—and your reality changes, one breath, one choice at a time.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with someone who needs a new door in their day, and leave a quick review. Then pick one practice for the next seven days and tell us what shifted. Your story might be the mirror someone else needs to step into conscious creation.

https://www.selfrealized.com

Transcript

Opening And Big Question

Linton Bergsen 0:01

Welcome to the self-realized podcast with Linton Ludson, where you will be with me. I'm not much into the self-help industry, as much as I'm into the self-realised individual, which is you, what matters most to you, how you get there, and the obstacles that may be in your way. If you would like to be part of this podcast and part of that discussion, I welcome you here with an open heart, open mind, and open mind. So let's get on with the podcast. Here is the question for today's episode. What if the most powerful force reshaping your life is not your job, your bank account, your past, or your talent, but the invisible way your awareness touches every moment. This is episode number one hundred and twenty two of the self-realized shatter your limits podcast. Consciousness creates reality. How awareness shapes your world. This episode will not be a floating idea or a late-night philosophy. This will be practical. There will be stories, experiments, and exercises you can test today so you can feel in your own central nervous system how a shift in awareness changes the world you think you live in. You do not have to believe anything in advance. You just need to be willing and aware to notice what's going on within your consciousness. So, as I like to say in my episodes, let's take a breath and begin. Contemplate on this for a moment. What is awareness really? Consciousness is the capacity to be aware and know that you are experiencing something. Awareness is that clear space that sees thoughts, emotions, and sensations come and go. Most of the time, we live inside the thought stream. I am late. I am not good enough. This always happens to me. Very rarely do we step back into the place that can say, ah, there, I am aware, there is the thought that I am not good enough. It is the actual awareness of the thought. That small shift from being the thought to seeing and being aware of the thought. That is where your power begins. I am going to give you now a mini exercise that you can use if you would like. It's called noticing awareness. Right now, wherever you are, do this for a minute. First, notice one physical sensation. Your feet on the floor, your hands, the weight of your body. Second, notice one sound around you. It could be distant traffic, a fan, voices, or just simply silence. Third, notice one thought passing by. Maybe it's about this episode, maybe it's about something that you need to do. Now ask yourself: what is it that is aware of the sensation, the sound, and the thought? You don't need to answer with words, just feel that there is a knowing, a witnessing, a conscious awareness of what is going on. That quiet, open, alert presence that is the awareness this episode is about. And that awareness, when you use it on purpose, reshapes your reality from the inside out. The journey of the self-realized individual is always reshaping their life from the inside out. I'm going to share a story with you now. I call the story The Day Everything Looked the Same. Years ago, there was a season in my life where everything felt like pressure. My schedule was packed. I was training and working in a lot of organizations, doing personal coaching and organizational development with Fortune One and 500 companies and small family-owned businesses, helping a lot of individuals and organizations to move to the next level in their business and personal lives. Every day felt like a race that I started behind the starting line. One morning, nothing outside changed. The same responsibilities, the same commitments, but something different happened. Instead of rolling out of bed into the storm of thoughts that was my normal pattern, there was a pause. A simple moment of conscious awareness. Wow. Before my feet have even touched the floor, I am already losing the race in my head. In that gap, a choice appeared. It was not a magic fix, it was a choice. To get still for two minutes, to feel the breath, to watch the fear thoughts marching by instead of saluting them. The emails were still there, the problems did not evaporate, but walking into the same day from awareness instead of panic changed every conversation, every decision that I made, every outcome of that day. My schedule did not change, my clients did not change. The numbers in the bank account did not instantly change. But the way reality was lived changed for me. Because the place it was lived from had shifted. I learned this very important life lesson. When awareness changes, the quality of your inner world changes also. And as that quality changes, your actions, words, and choices change, which eventually alters the very outer reality you think is fixed. Let us do an exercise now and run an experiment to see if you can shift that fixed state. Let's prove this to yourself in real time that you can. If you are able at this moment in time, do this with your full attention. If you are driving or you're busy, come back to this later. We will move through three short states. State number one, the worry focus state. When all you can think about and focus on is something that is bothering and worrying you. So what I want you to do right now is think about something in particular that worries you. Let your mind do what it usually does. Imagine what could go wrong, how it affects you, how it might feel if it doesn't work out. As you do this, notice your body, the jaw, shoulders, your chest, stomach. Notice your breathing. Very important. Don't fight it, just notice. In state number two, we are going to change our focus from worry to gratitude or appreciation. Bring to mind one person, moment or memory that you genuinely appreciate. It could be small, a look someone gave you, a time you laughed, a place where you felt safe. Let yourself feel what that was like. Again, notice your body, your breathing, your energy. State number three we are going to become the observer. Now step back one more time. Be aware that you just experienced two very different realities without even moving from your chair. See if you can sense the part of you that was present in both. The awareness that watched worry and the awareness that watched appreciation. There are two different states of consciousness that bring about different results and feelings. The awareness did not change, but what it focused on changed. And because of that, your moment-to-moment reality changed. Change your focus, you will change your consciousness. It acts upon what you choose to focus upon. This is not positive thinking. This is recognizing that your awareness is the lens through which your nervous system, your mind, and ultimately your behavior respond to life. Your conscious awareness is the dictator to the outcomes of your reality. And because of that, it is very important not to live life on autopilot and just keep repeating patterns of behavior because they're what you're used to doing and repeating with patterns of the same self-talk. Every one of us has patterns. Snapping when we feel criticized, shutting down when we feel overwhelmed, numbing out when we feel lonely. Most people only notice the pattern after the damage is done. I can't believe I said that. Why did I avoid that again? Awareness is what moves the moment of noticing earlier in the sequence. Instead of realizing it after the explosion, you begin to feel it when the fuse is lit. For example, imagine you're in a conversation with someone you care about. They say something that lands wrong. Normally your body will tighten, and within seconds, you're defending, attacking, or withdrawing. One day you feel the similar surge, and that's when awareness steps in. Oh, here it is, the old film is starting again. You haven't said anything yet. In that one conscious breath, you now have a choice. You can play the same old movie or you can ask, What am I actually needing right now? What are they needing? That one breath can save a relationship. That one breath can change the reality of the next five minutes, which can change the reality of the next five years. The saying take a breath before you take an action or speak literally can save you a lot of heartache, problems, and regrets in life. Here's an exercise I'm going to give you that I suggest you can use to identify some of the patterns you may have in life. It's called the pattern catcher. Think of one pattern in your life you're tired of repeating. Maybe it's procrastinating on important work, maybe it's late night scrolling, maybe it's picking a fight when you feel insecure. Now identify the early signals. What happens in your body just before the pattern plays out? What sentence shows up in your mind? What's the point? They never listen. I'll do it later. Your assignment for the next week, your only goal is not to fix the pattern. Your goal is to notice the earliest signal once per day and take one conscious breath. That's it. One breath. You will be amazed how that small act of awareness begins to loosen the grip of a pattern that felt like your personality. The self-realized individual is always working on their consciousness and the reality that they live in and project and put into the world. Part of the identity that you put into the world is the I am stories that you tell yourself. Awareness doesn't change your mood, it changes your identity. You are walking around with invisible labels. I am not organized. I am bad with money. I am not lovable. I am just an anxious person. These I am stories are like architects quietly designing your reality. They live in the present and they affect you now. Without awareness, these stories feel like facts. With awareness, you can see them as habits of thought and destructive self-talk. I would like to give you an exercise now that you can use, and the exercise will allow you to rewrite three I am statements. Have a pen if you can. If not, you can do this mentally. Be honest and don't try to make them prettier than they actually are. Now, one by one, look at them and ask, is this the truth of who I am? Or is this just a long rehearsed thought to keep me from facing who I really am? Or is this I am statement a false one keeping me in a reality, a conscious reality that I truly would like to change. Rewrite each one into a conscious, living direction instead of a prison. For example, I am not organized because I am learning to design my days with intention. I am bad with money because I am becoming someone who respects and understands money. You might feel resistance, that's normal. You are not lying to yourself. You are choosing the reality your willingness is willing to grow toward. Every time you return to these new I am statements, you are moving from an old reality created by unconscious belief and subconscious programming into a new one, created by conscious awareness. When you live in that state, you begin to open possibilities. When awareness is low, life feels like a narrow hallway. One option, one story, one way, this can go. When awareness is high, doors start to open that you didn't even know were there. The circumstances might be the same, but the range of responses expands. And that is when you begin to make decisions from expanded awareness. When you choose to live in a conscious state of expanded awareness, your decisions change. You don't choose to stay in a misaligned job. In a relationship that does not work anymore. You choose stepping into something uncertain but aligned. That is expanded awareness. On paper, things may look like staying was safer. But in quiet awareness, another truth emerged. You had a feeling I am sinking here, I am shrinking. Here. I am saying no to who I really am. That awareness didn't hand over a guaranteed outcome. It simply revealed the cost of staying asleep was higher than the risk of waking up. From that awareness, new possibilities appeared. Conversations, opportunities, paths that were invisible from fear. I am going to give you an exercise now that I suggest can expand your awareness. And the exercise is called the possibility questions. Think of one challenge you are facing right now. Hold it in your mind. Now ask yourself three questions slowly. Number one What else could be true in this challenge here that I am currently not seeing that can help me? Number two, if I fully trusted myself, what would I do next? Number three, what is one small action that would honor the reality I want to live in, not the one I am afraid of. You don't have to act on it yet. You just let your awareness open the window and let things begin to percolate. When you allow things space to breathe, they have the ability to grow and expand, allowing the spiritual aspect of our lives to come into play, as well as our human nature, to guide us to the right solutions for what it is we are trying to solve. Reality feels very different when there is at least one more door open in the room. It is very important to make awareness a living force in your life. It has to move from a special moment to a habit, not a three-hour meditation or retreat, tiny repeatable practices that keep you awake in the middle of real life. I would like to give you a simple daily framework that you can structure and adopt and adapt to help you align and set your awareness on a daily basis towards the goals that you'd like to accomplish. In the morning, just take two or three minutes to set your awareness. Before you look at your phone, ask what do I choose to be today? Picture one situation you know is coming. Work, a hard conversation, a challenge. See yourself meeting it from awareness, breathing, listening, choosing the right choices, responses, and not old reactions. Midday, check in again. Check your awareness. Pause whenever you can. Ask yourself, what story am I unconsciously believing right now? If it's not a story you want to live, take one breath and soften your grip on it. Let it go. At the end of the day, review your awareness. Look back over the day. Where did you catch yourself and choose differently? Celebrate that. Where did you miss it? Learn without beating yourself up. This is how consciousness, drip by drip, begins to rewrite your reality. Consciousness creates reality, how awareness shapes your world. Not with one giant breakthrough, but with thousands of small moments when you remember you are more than your thoughts, your fear, or your past. Take one last deep breath with me, in and out. Look at your life for a moment, the relationships, work, the challenges, the dreams that still just feel out of reach. Nothing outside of you may have changed during this episode. And yet something subtle but powerful has been happening the whole time. You have been watching your own mind. You have been feeling your own patterns. You have been touching the place in you that is bigger than any story you have been living. That is consciousness. And that consciousness is not a passive witness. It is the author, it is the architect, it is the quiet force that shapes the world you wake up in one choice at a time. Here is your invitation. Do not let this stay as an interesting idea. Right now, choose one thing from this episode. The three-state experiment, the pattern catcher, the three I am rewrites, the simple daily awareness routine. Pick one. Commit to practicing it for the next seven days. Write it down, set a reminder, make it real. And then watch. Watch how your inner world begins to reorganize. Watch how your reactions soften. Watch how new options appear where there used to be walls. If this episode helped you see life differently, share it with one person who needs to hear that they are not trapped in their circumstances, that they can shape their reality by waking up their awareness. Make sure you follow the show so you don't miss what is coming next. Leave a rating or review, and more importantly, send a short message about the shift you are choosing to make. Your story might be the reflection someone else needs to realize that they too can step out of autopilot and into conscious creation. Remember, you are not just a character in your story, you are the awareness behind it. If you use it well, you will watch your world change. Whatever platform you're on, please leave a rating and review. I would greatly appreciate it. Any additional information on me, Linton Bergson, and my five-star reviewed book, Purposeful Vision, is available at selfreanice.com, which is all one word. You can also leave any comments or suggestions on the website. Take good care of yourself.