What You Will Learn in This Episode
- What consciousness and spiritual awakening actually mean beyond the buzzwords
- Why awakening is a spiral rather than a linear journey
- How unconsciousness is really just distance from yourself
- The difference between being awake and being truly aware
- Why doing your own inner work is the most powerful contribution you can make to the world
- How expanding awareness brings freedom and genuine choice
- Why joy, connection and beauty are your birthright — not a luxury
What Does It Really Mean to Be Conscious?
In this episode of the Inner Threads podcast, Courtney Kaplan, Bert Nelson and Jessica Luke explore one of the most profound and misunderstood concepts in personal and spiritual growth — consciousness itself. Not as an abstract philosophical idea but as a living, breathing, ever expanding practice that touches every area of our lives.
Because here’s the truth — being out of bed doesn’t make you conscious. Real spiritual awakening goes deeper than that.
Awakening Is a Spiral, Not a Straight Line
Jessica introduces one of the most liberating frameworks of the episode — the idea of consciousness as a spiral staircase. We don’t wake up once and stay awake. We circle back to familiar patterns, familiar challenges and familiar wounds — but each time at a higher level of awareness and understanding.
Those crunchy spots where the inner work gets uncomfortable? They aren’t signs of failure. They’re signs you’re going higher.
What is consciousness at its most essential? Jessica offers a beautifully accessible definition — it’s being awake to your own experience. Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your conditioning. The wounds and patterns that have been quietly running the show — sometimes for decades — without your awareness.
It’s not binary. It’s not reserved for monks or mystics. It’s a work in progress available to all of us — an invitation to wake up out of the old patterns that have been limiting us and step into something larger.
Unconsciousness Is Distance From Yourself
Bert offers one of the most profound reframes of the episode — that unconsciousness isn’t darkness. It’s distance.
The more separated we are from our own experience — from our values, our power, our sense of what’s right and true — the less conscious we actually are. And the more we come back to ourselves, the more alive everything becomes.
The butterflies. The hummingbirds. The flowers. All of it vibrant and present — a field of consciousness that was always there, waiting for us to return.
“All is always here,” Bert reminds us. “It’s coming back to myself that makes it clear.”
The Cathedral Story: Changing Your Point of View
Courtney shares an ancient story that beautifully illustrates what expanding consciousness actually feels like.
Three brickmakers. Same task. Three completely different realities.
The first says — I make bricks.
The second says — I build walls that will last a long time.
The third says — I am building a cathedral that will stand long after I am gone.
Same bricks. Same hands. Same work. Completely different consciousness.
That shift — from the immediate to the infinite — is what spiritual awakening actually looks like in practice. Not a dramatic moment of enlightenment but a gradual expansion of the picture we’re able to see. More context. More meaning. More choice.
And that’s ultimately why consciousness and personal growth matter — because with greater awareness comes freedom. And with freedom comes the ability to choose something different.
You Can’t Change the World Without Changing Yourself
One of the most powerful moments of the episode comes when Bert addresses one of the most common questions he hears — how do I help heal a broken world?
His answer is both humbling and deeply empowering.
You can’t change other people. You can’t fix systems or structures or wars through sheer force of will. But you can pursue consciousness and inner work. You can show up with integrity. You can trust that the ripple effect of one person doing that work is immeasurable.
“I can work on me,” Bert shares. “And I can pursue consciousness and share that and show up and know and trust that that has a positive impact on the world around me.”
Joy Is Our Birthright
Perhaps the most moving moment of the entire episode comes from Courtney — sharing the conversation with a friend years ago when she was ready to give up on the path entirely.
What’s the point? It’s painful. I keep failing. Why bother?
Her friend’s response has stayed with her ever since — if you don’t bother, there might come a moment where you look back and realize you missed something.
Something that doesn’t come from Netflix or promotions or achievements.
Joy. Connection. Fulfillment. Mind shattering beauty.
Courtney calls it our birthright — a joyful unfolding life that takes care of us and the beings around us when we choose to stay on the path.
It’s hard. And it is absolutely worth every single step.
A Note From the Hosts
“The field of consciousness, the field of life — it’s always there. It’s coming back to myself that makes it clear and clear and clear. All is always here.” — Bert Nelson, Inner Threads
Whether you’re just beginning to explore what consciousness means or you’re deep in the spiral of your own awakening, this episode of the Inner Threads podcast offers wisdom, warmth and a profound reminder that the inner work is always worth it.
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