A lot of us want to live consciously. The thought of living an unconscious life is unattractive. But do we really understand what conscious living entails?
Defining Conscious Living
Conscious living is living in accord with the highest level of awareness (mindfulness) we are capable of at any given moment. That entails active self-awareness at all levels of our being: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It also means we live with an awareness of the impact or the consequences of our being-ness on our own self, on others, and on the environment.
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Conscious living means we’re aware that what we think, feel, and do has consequences first on who we become but on other beings as well. Others means not only the people we’re in direct contact with, but those we indirectly impact by the level of our awareness, choices and actions. That’s the entire world population.
This conscious living action relates not only to all humans but to all animals and plants as well. And when we consider the environment, it’s not simply the ground where we stand and the air we breathe. It encompasses the local all the way out to planetary levels.
When Our Idea of Conscious Living Is Insufficient
Still, this awareness as broadly defined as we can define it is still insufficient if we lack responsibility, accountability and compassion for the negative consequences we create, knowingly or not, on the others.
Our awareness is insufficient if we lack the desire to shift and remedy our attitudes and actions in order to contribute to a more harmonious whole.
Care and Concern for All Others: Why Necessary for Conscious Living?
Humans are naturally very self-centered. This attitude immediately limits the scope of your and my awareness. It causes us to be influenced by all kinds of ideas and values handed down from one generation to the next and blindly accepted.
That collective consciousness unconsciously subjects us to a collective hypnotism that pushes us in preconceived directions. It robs us of the exercise of our free will.
Consequently, for a good part of our lives we’re likely sleepwalking—and not likely in the right direction. This creates undesirable consequences for ourselves and others. When we sleepwalk through life we’re not being our full selves. We allow ourselves to be robbed of part of our own living experience.
Conscious Living: How To
All this might sound ambitious and challenging. How do we go about living consciously?
The safety admonition air travelers are familiar with comes to mind:
In case oxygen masks are released from the overhead compartment, apply yours first before helping others, even the ones we love.
We have to take care of ourselves first if we want to be capable of helping others. In conscious living parlance it means we must rise higher in consciousness. And this starts with an enhanced awareness of our own selves.
The saying “think globally but act locally” is also appropriate.
We need to remember our actions have consequences, both positive and negative, and well beyond ourselves. This is why self-awareness is the first most indispensible step. And it’s neither obvious nor easy.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961), one of the first Western explorers of collective consciousness (a phrase he coined), taught that:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Making the Unconscious Conscious
Life itself points us in the direction of conscious living all the time if we’ll only notice.
Think of your life experience as the projection of the content of your consciousness, including all the parts of the collective unconscious that you’ve unconsciously and consciously accepted.
What you don’t agree with or are proud of you project outwardly as a discordant life experience.
The only way to change the experience is to modify the content of your consciousness responsible for those undesirable experiences.
Observation and introspection will help you identify beliefs or values you aren’t in your heart of hearts in concert with.
Consciously dispense with them anytime they resurface. This practice requires practice, skill and patience.
Don’t condemn yourself for failing because the root cause is a set of beliefs that comes from the universal unconscious. But cultivating self-love will provide all the patience and awareness you seek.
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Sources:
“Thrilled To Be Alive.” Live Conscious, 13 Jan. 2018, liveconscious.com/2017/12/thrilled-to-be-alive/.
Photo courtesy of Kristopher Allison on Unsplash