5 Signs You're Stuck on the Hawkins Scale of Consciousness — And What Actually Moves You Up
- Fabienne
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
A look at Hawkins' Scale of Consciousness, why your animal might be tracking yours, and a few ways to start shifting today.
Some loops don't need more effort. They need a map.
You know the pattern. You just don't know how to stop being in it.
I didn't either. I used to treat every stuck pattern the same way: analyse it (overthink!), try to find the root cause.
That sometimes worked — until I ran into patterns from pre-verbal memory, or ones that weren't even mine to begin with, inherited across generations. Then I'd try to fix the thought (often by more thinking) — but that was so effortful, and brought so little lasting change.
Here's what changed things for me: some patterns aren't sitting in the thoughts at all. In a way that's admittedly a little abstract, I'd say they're sitting in the frequency of the whole nervous system. Emotions, after all, are frequencies — and frequencies determine how we vibe, who we vibe with (like attracts like), and what we draw into our lives.
Frequency Isn't a Metaphor — It's a Map
This is where psychiatrist David R. Hawkins' Scale of Consciousness comes in — a map of human states running from the heaviest (shame, guilt, fear) up through courage, willingness, and acceptance, into the higher registers of love, joy, and peace. This has nothing to do with being a good or bad person — it names which state is currently running the show, even if you haven't consciously picked it.
Why Your Animal Might Be Feeling It Too
If there's an animal in your life, you may have noticed something curious: their behaviour mirrors the frequency you are in. Our shame, grief, fear, and other contracted emotions will be reflected in the animal's behaviour, health, and wellbeing. Haven't you also noticed that when you're in a high vibe — feeling joyful, peaceful — your animal companion easily follows you into that same expansion?
Why? Well, it's nervous system attunement. Animals are exquisitely sensitive to the emotional and energetic state of the people they're bonded to, and, more than that, they express what we've learned to suppress. So when we work with the human-animal frequency together, the animal isn't a side note. They're often the clearest signal in the room.
Whether or not there's an animal in the picture right now — here are five signs you're currently stuck at a lower rung of that scale, and what tends to actually move the needle.
1. The Same Pattern Keeps Returning, No Matter What You Try
You've read the books, done the reflection, maybe even done real inner work. And still — same tension, different day.
What helps: You can't think your way up the scale — you can only shift your way up it. That shift starts with knowing exactly where you're standing right now — the actual, current frequency of the pattern that keeps circling back. Movement up the scale happens through a felt shift, not a mental one — a change in what your body believes is true, not just what your mind understands.
2. Your Body Reacts Before Your Mind Catches Up
You snap at something small. You brace before anything's actually happened. The reaction is bigger than the moment calls for — and afterward, you're not entirely sure where it came from.
What helps: Before reacting, name where it lands in the body first — chest, jaw, stomach, wherever it shows up. Locating it physically interrupts the automatic loop and gives you something concrete to work with, instead of getting swept into the story about why it happened.
3. You Sense There's a "Next State" — You Just Can't Locate the Way There
That instinct is worth trusting. It usually shows up as restlessness with things that used to satisfy you — a coping habit, a routine, a way of handling a problem — even without anything better in sight yet. You're not unhappy exactly. You're just done with the current shape of things.
What helps: Write one sentence: "I don't know what's next, but I know it's not this anymore." Naming the edge — without forcing yourself to name the destination — is often enough to loosen the current state's grip. The next rung tends to reveal itself once you stop pretending you're satisfied with this one.
4. Calm Feels Like Numbness, Not Ease
Sometimes what looks like acceptance from the outside is actually freeze — a shutdown state that reads as peaceful but isn't.
What helps: Test it. Ask yourself if there's any warmth or curiosity inside the "calm." Genuine higher-frequency calm has some aliveness in it; a freeze response usually feels flat or far away instead.
5. Willpower Keeps Failing You
If you've tried to force your way out of a pattern through sheer discipline and it hasn't held, that's not a personal failing. Hawkins suggests that moving through states like willingness and acceptance helps you spend more time in the higher frequencies. Letting yourself be — rather than forcing yourself through — tends to create more durable change.
What helps: Instead of "I need to make myself do this," try "I'm willing to let this shift." It sounds subtle. The nervous system experiences it very differently.
Why This Matters More Than It Sounds
None of this is about achieving some permanently blissful state. Most of us move through several states on the scale in a single day. The goal isn't to live at the top — it's to notice where you actually are, often, and understand what tends to move you one state up rather than staying stuck at the bottom of the loop.
If you have an animal in your life, this gets even more interesting: their behaviour is often the earliest tell of where you both actually stand — well before your own mind catches up to it.
Signs You're Ready for a Mapping Conversation
You recognized yourself in more than one of these. That's usually not a coincidence — it's a sign you're already standing at the edge of a shift, even if you can't see the next state yet.
You notice it echoed in your animal. The same stuck point, playing out in their behavior, their body, their energy around you.
You're tired of tips. You don't need another five-minute practice. You need to know where you actually stand, so the next step makes sense.
Something in you already senses there's a "next state" — you just can't see the way there. That instinct is worth trusting. It usually means you're closer than it feels.
If any of that landed, a Rise Your Frequency call is exactly what it sounds like — a free 30-minute mapping conversation, locating where you (and your animal, if they're part of the picture) actually stand on the scale, and what the next state up requires.
What's your go-to sign that you've shifted states? I'd love to hear it.
With warmth and possibility,
Fabienne ♡
Frequently Asked Questions about Hawkins' Scale of Consciousness
What is Hawkins' Scale of Consciousness?
It's a framework developed by psychiatrist David R. Hawkins that maps human states of consciousness along a spectrum, from heavier states like shame, guilt, and fear, up through courage, willingness, and acceptance, into higher states like love, joy, and peace. Most people move through several states in a single day, though many default back to one or two "home" states under stress.
Can my animal really reflect my frequency?
Animals are highly attuned to the nervous system state of the people they're bonded to. Many animal parents notice their animal's tension, restlessness, or withdrawal closely tracking their own internal state, especially during stuck or repeating patterns.
Is moving up the scale the same as "positive thinking"?
Not quite. Positive thinking tries to override a lower state with a mental override, which rarely holds. Moving up the scale is closer to a felt, nervous-system-level shift — which is why techniques that work through the body (breath, movement, and other body-based practices) tend to be more effective than affirmations alone.
Does this apply if I don't have an animal?
Yes — the scale and the stuck-pattern dynamic apply to anyone, animal in the picture or not.
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