Hi dear ones! Let’s talk about self-consciousness today! This is part of a new series I’m launching called, Answers from Eden! In this series, we will talk about the book of Genesis; specifically when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden! Genesis is the origins story of mankind and I believe we can truly understand so much about the world today by looking at where we came from and everything that transpired in the first 100 years of human history. Today, I want to share with you about what self-consciousness is, the exact point in time when humans first became self-conscious and how we can overcome these feelings once and for all in a very simple and effective way.
Ok, first thing is first! What is self-consciousness? Self-consciousness can be thought of as a heightened sense of awareness of oneself. The dictionary states it is, “being excessively aware of being observed by others; conscious of oneself or one’s own being.” In short, if you’ve ever been worried about what you look like, what you own or what other’s think of you, you have been self-conscious! Now everyone in the world is self-conscious, but have you ever thought about why this self-consciousness affect us all?
The truth is that, humans were not born originally self-conscious. Self-consciousness was introduced to mankind sometime between the years of 1-100; sometime before Adam and Eve were forced to leave the Garden of Eden (Genesis 5). How then, did the human race become so self-conscious and why?
Self-consciousness came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil located in the Garden of Eden. (The Garden of Eden is an actual place with a physical location, which was Assyria during Biblical times and what is modern day Iraq). God didn’t intend for self-consciousness to be a part of our original DNA and it wasn’t something we used to have to contend with. However, when man chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he got exactly what he wanted. The knowledge of all evil became apparent to the human race. Humans were able to see and understand things that they never were intended to. That is how our perceptions changed and self-consciousness became “normal” from that moment on.
We’ve always had self-awareness as a human race, which is, the conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires… but now…after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, humans were able to think differently and this could not be reversed. Have you ever heard of the saying, you can’t “un-see” something? It means that once you see something, you can’t go back to the point in time where you didn’t see it. Once you see something, the fact that you saw it can’t be changed. In this way, once humans “saw” the truth about good and evil, their minds were forever changed. We started being aware of how others perceived us instead of being introspective only.
So what happened when we became self-conscious? Well, we immediately started getting insecure and focused on ourselves; how we look, what we have and what that says about who we are- which is still the current state of humanity today.
However, there was a time when humans were not concerned with these things. At this point in time, humans used to be only concerned with God. They only thought about loving God, how loved they were by Him and all the tasks that God allowed them to do in the garden (eat fruit, name the animals, explore the garden, etc). Once humans took their eyes off of God’s goodness and starting focusing on disobeying God instead, that’s when all of these negative feelings were able to manifest. And manifest quickly they did!
-Genesis 3: 6-7 NIV-
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
After Adam and Eve ate from the tree and their eyes were “opened” (to evil) they realized that they were naked. It was at that moment that various negative emotions were given permission to be let in: fear, embarrassment, shame; all of these became introduced to humans in the blink of an eye. You can see in the scriptures that in one sentence they ate the fruit and in the next sentence they became naked, self-conscious, and wanting to hide. It took only an instant for their entire thought-life to be corrupted and the negative effects were manifested simultaneously. It all happened at one time. And that is why we deal with these same feelings today. People walk around today still cloaked in the shame and concern of what others think of them. This isn’t your fault; it happened before you were born; nevertheless, it is the reality of our current situation.
So… is there hope for mankind?! I have great news people: the answer is YES!! Come back to my blog and read Part II to find the answer to this question : ) Please keep a look out for Part II to see how to completely rid yourself of this self-consciousness! It’s not only possible, but what you were made for!!!
♡ BLESSINGS ♡
Lifted Vision Ministry 