Written by: Antoinette Njombua-Fombad, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Don’t be the rule because it fits cultural expectations.
Be the rule because it supports your perspective as influenced by your conscious good-intentioned values and beliefs.
Have you ever wondered why our interpretation of life is often automated? Or why, even when we are aware of an experience, we choose to relate to it against our genuine connection with it? Although cultural conformity has a lot to do with such subconscious reactions, our conscious interpretation should always take precedence.
Our minds have been conditioned to associate specific outcomes to specific situations, even though realistically, there never is a one-size-fits-all to any circumstance no matter how relatable or expected it is. Cultural conformity is meant to be a dependent guide during our early years of life, as we learn about living and sharing space with a world we are born into. Nevertheless, it is also meant to evolve into a helpful reference as we understand and transition more into purposeful living.
“The more we allow data to define ourselves instead of our experiences, the further we dehumanize ourselves” - healloveandgrow.com
To survive in such immature conscious states, we use these blueprints to map out the elementary stages of our journeys. However, what is meant to be an introductory guide to living, now appears to be finite even when we age into years of needed growth and self-actualization. Understandably, guides are often created from experiences that provide evidence supporting an option with expected and acceptable outcomes. But, regardless of whether our discernments are harmonious with our subconscious responses, they should primarily be influenced by our freedom of thought and choice.
Becoming requires freedom of thought, choice, and accountability, and an opportunity to grow purposefully. When the threat of isolation (whether within or without) becomes a key influence on our individuality of thought and choice, we remain programmed to associate such actions with the feeling of estrangement. Consequently, fear sets in and impedes the true path to belonging as defined by our connection to our reality.
The more we respond in good faith to any situation based on our awareness, the more we evolve and live more connected to ourselves and our reality. It’s not defiance; it’s autonomy, accountability, and authenticity, and living more consciously to the true reflection of who we are.
Wondering where to start? Here are 5 questions to help with conscious discernment.
What is right and or wrong about this situation?
Why do I connect with it the way I do?
Is my connection influenced mainly by subconscious programming or my current awareness?
Is my perception based on my conscious discernment?
Is it in line with the best action or response that will bring about the most (collective) growth, even if I feel it serves me less?
Realistically, our humanity will influence such conclusions. Still, even in situations where we choose a more self-serving option, our awareness of it facilitates accountability for that choice even before we make it, and learning happens even before our actions.
Using such a pattern promotes and sustains conscious growth and elevates self-trust and belief, facilitating our shift from living in a subconscious/autopilot state to a conscious and realistic one. Consequently, we live more on purpose and feel alive and connected to our individuality and our communities at the same time. Life transitions from survival mode to a collective growth mindset, building more trust and inspiring hope and a sense of belonging in a world that exists in favor of conscious living.
“Evolution demands higher levels of consciousness for the possibility of growth and transformation. As much as we make every human attempt to standardize and normalize predictability, we still need to remember that we are individuals and evolve independently before collectively. Rather than mostly focusing on grouping our nature and changes to universal data, it is more beneficial to include the independent variable of individual experiences guided by Conscious living” - healloveandgrow.com.
Antoinette Njombua-Fombad, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine
Antoinette Njombua-Fombad is a Connection and Awareness solution-driven coach, helping individuals and groups understand the value of emotions as purposeful and vital to enhancing our perception for individual and collective growth.
She is the founder of WITHIN life coaching services, a writer, storyteller, and motivational speaker working to inspire and empower individuals and groups towards a better understanding of self for improvement in areas of awareness, mindset shifting, negotiation, Identity, presentation, and confidence, using a healing-loving-and-growing approach
She is a healer who believes personal growth is crucial to all other relationships and transactional growth. Her healing and coaching journey includes a combined background in caring for individuals as a Registered Nurse and Case Manager for the past eleven years.
Her practice and writings are centered around the conviction that we are gifted beyond recognition with individual capabilities often suppressed by our fear of emotions, which continue to deprive us of the lessons needed to elevate ourselves and our relationships. As our humanity necessitates endless opportunities for healing and loving environments to facilitate self-improvement in the process of our evolution, we need to keep looking within ourselves for a pathway to growing and becoming.
