#1 - Spend more time in direct contact with nature

#2 - Eat more high-vibration living foods and superfoods

#3 - Clean your clutter to clear your mind

#4 - Observe your decisions as if you were your own life coach

#5 - Increase your commitment to spiritual practice

In summary

(NaturalNews) Last week, I declared 2012 the "Year of Consciousness" for NaturalNews ( https://www.naturalnews.com/034554_consciousn... ) and pointed out that the ultimate solution to ending tyranny, wars, corporate deception and environmental destruction is torather than "killing our enemies." This announcement was greatly appreciated by NaturalNews readers, who for the most part have a very positive outlook on 2012 and beyond.But there was something missing from the announcement: How do wehigher consciousness?And I don't mean burning a roomful of candles, chanting mantras for seven years and mastering the art of transcendental meditation (which takes a lifetime or more). That's not practical for most people in the real world today. What we need isto upgrade our consciousness right now, here in 2012, in our own living rooms.That's what this article is about: Five practical ways to raise your level of consciousness starting right now. (I'm also publishing a follow-up article listing things to avoid that crush your consciousness.) For this article, by the way, "raising your consciousness" means expanding your awareness of reality, expanding your connection with other human beings and living systems, and deepening your sense of free will, liberty and being the master of your own destiny through applied decisions and actions. It is not just a "sense of self" but also a heightened sense of how your actions impact the world around you.Here are the five steps:Want to boost your conscious awareness? Turn off the TV, ditch the X-Box, and go hiking in a state park somewhere. Go trail running. Plant a garden. Or just take your dog for a walk!Spending time in nature, opens your heart and expands your sense of connection with who you are and the miracle of creation. So make an effort to spend more time in nature, and if you can manage it,where you can actually live in nature.Raising your consciousness means raising your nutritional standards, too. You're never going to attain a high level of self awareness if your brain is running on junk food, chemical preservatives and artificial colors. Those are things, in fact, that destroy awareness and cognitive function.The highest-vibration foods you can get for awareness expansion areyou go out and find yourself (in a forest, a field, etc.). The second highest foods are those youyourself, usually in a home garden or a sprouting machine.After years of studying and teaching nutrition, the pattern is obvious: People who live on low-vibration foods (junk foods, fast foods and processed foods) haveand impaired cognitive function. They tend to have narrow, selfish minds and are incapable of assessing information from a wide perspective. They live on microwaveable dinners, they drink diet soda, and they vote for whatever political candidate the media tells them to. They are, in essence, "zombies" who operate more as brainwashed consumers than conscious human beings.The junk food poisoning of our modern world is one of the most astonishing un-reported stories of our generation. I plan to cover it more here on NaturalNews, by the way, to reveal the links between the junk food supply and the downfall of complex civilization. For now, focus your effort on increasing your consumption of high-vibration foods, meaningfoods, sprouted foods, wild-crafted foods and home-grown foods.Is your house a jumble of clutter? Do you have so much junk stacked up everywhere that you only have a narrow pathway through it all from your bedroom to your kitchen? The more clutter you have in your home or office, the more cluttered your mind tends to be. Eliminating that clutter is key to finding some peace in your own home.I've struggled with this, by the way. The situation becomes even more complex when you practicelike I do. As the boxes, cans and other gear stacks up, it's not easy to get it all put away in an organized manner. The thing I've found that works best is a heavy-duty steel shelving unit (purchased at a local hardware store) combined with high-quality storage bins like these made by Akro-Mills: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00027FEJ8 I use Post-It tape ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IF84 ) and a permanent marker to write labels on these bins. The tape is sticky enough to stay put, but easy to pull off if you ever want to change the label. My bins are labeled with titles like: Flashlights, Batteries, Compass & Navigation, First Aid and so on.Instead of just making decisions and taking actions from your own first-person point of view -- I want a cookie, I feel happy, I feel angry, I need a job -- zoom out and take the greater perspective of beingIn other words, view your actions and decisions as if you were. If you have a particular outcome you would like to achieve in life, ask your inner consultant how that might be reasonably achieved.For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds of body weight, improve your skin and experience a better sex life, your consultant might give you a reasonable course of action involving dietary strategies, daily exercise, and a reduction of stress. But when you view your life from your own (first-person) eyes, it's tempting to say, "I want to eat a pizza," or "I don't feel like exercising." That's why letting your consultant have a say in your life is a wise strategy.In terms of consciousness, the mere act of invoking youris, all by itself, a meta-level advancement in your perspective (and therefore, consciousness). To be able to observe your own actions from the perspective of an outside consultant is a necessary step to grokking the world through the eyes and hearts of other living creatures. It is the gateway to empathy, in other words, and empathy is the gateway to lasting peace.War can only be waged from the perspective of "I" that lacks the greater awareness of connectedness among all living things. "I shoot you" is the mantra of modern warfare, and yet all by itself, the statement is illogical from a higher perspective because "you" and "I" are bound together in non-material ways that transcend our material bodies. Read more in my article on consciousness:No matter what your particular spiritual practices, deepening your commitment to spiritual awakening will automatically raise your level of consciousness. Whether you go to an organized church or simply practice your own personal form of spirituality, enhancing your commitment to that practice will reap rewards beyond the material.Don't ever let anyone tell you that you have to go to church to be considered spiritual, by the way. If God is everywhere, then he's also in your living room. A church may be beneficial in many ways, but it does not have a monopoly on connecting with the spiritual realm.For some people, a "spiritual practice" may consist solely of meditation or even taking a vow of silence. The point of such exercises is to turn your attention, to better know your inner self as a step toward connecting with your "higher self" (or spirit or soul or even God), which is both divine and non-material. Regardless of the particular terminology or spiritual practices you prefer, deepening them will have a profound impact on your level of consciousness awareness in day-to-day living.Remember,. And there is much more out there than the crude matter into which we typically find ourselves entwined. If you are not spending some time each week exploring the bigger questions of consciousness, philosophy, life and the after-life, then you are missing out on the most important part of having a conscious mind in the first place.Got all that? Here are the five practical steps again:#1) Spend more time in nature.#2) Consume more high-vibration foods.#3) Clean your clutter.#4) View your life as if you were your own life coach.#5) Deepen your commitment to spiritual practice (even if it's just a few minutes a week).These five steps are, and they will dramatically alter (and improve) your experience of life. Coming up next here on NaturalNews.com, I'm working on an article about five things that destroy consciousness -- things to avoid, in other words, as you work to enhance your conscious awareness. Watch for that article in a few days.