Living Consciously Every Day

July 17, 2008

The genre of self-help and personal development is rife with buzz words. Words like, ?attraction,? ?abundance? and “energy” sound good so we repeat them and nod along when they’re said. Playing fast and loose with the terminology has left the real, life-changing possibilities in the dust. The word “consciousness” has been reduced to meaning nothing, which is sad because it means everything if you are serious about your personal growth. To live consciously is a spiritual practice that can take a lifetime to master and is not for the faint of heart. It is not always easy and it is not always fast, but it is all encompassing and life altering.

Being conscious in one’s life means to be clearly aware of one’s self. You may not understand what this means right now, but one day you will experience it and, no matter how short an experience that may be, you will seek it again from that point forward. It is the quiet, still mind that observes itself and knows that its fears and anxieties are a myth of its own creation. To live consciously means living your life from that inner silence without the background chatter of your mind. It means never being overwhelmed by your own emotions and whirling thoughts. It is the silencing of your ego and the opening up of yourself to a deeper sense of identity.

I know all of this sounds like more buzz-word phrasing, but for those who have experienced this, the understanding is clear.

The goal of living consciously is to do so every day. Not just while you sit quietly with your eyes closed in meditation, but when you are sitting in traffic or dealing with your boss or coworkers. It is remaining calm and clear while dealing with stressful situations. It is the ability to be faced with any situation, while never being overtaken by a runaway mind. The ego, you see, can be a trap. It isn’t meant to be and I will always come to the ego’s defense from those who would condemn it as somehow baser and more evil than the “higher self.” Your ego is nothing to run away from and certainly nothing to be done away with. It is a natural part of you. You cannot give up this half of yourself, but neither can you let it overrun you. This is where most people find themselves. They are slaves to the ceaseless and many times vicious voices in their heads. They have become attached to, and ruled by, the ego. If you wish to live consciously, you must avoid this.

Attachment

Attachment is the detrimental alignment of yourself with one thing over another. It is the denial of something for the 100% devotion to something else. It is dangerous and ultimately useless. Attachment is denial and denial is the epitome of unconscious living. The pain that Buddhists link to attachment is the pain caused by being unwilling to adapt and change, being un-malleable. This is all caused by the polarization of one’s self and the unwillingness to venture out from that pole.

When we identify ourselves with the ego, we become ruled by it and it alone. We lose sight and sensation of our spirit or our deeper sense of self. Conversely, when we align only to the deeper self, we loose our sense of pragmatism and individualism and ultimately become lost to the rest of the world. A good example of this are the holy men now sitting on the banks of the Ganges River who have given up everything. They are in poor health, malnourished and have nothing but the rags on their backs. Spiritually they are giants but in the manifested world they are sickly old men. They aligned solely to their higher self and let everything else fall by the wayside.

This kind of neglect has to be avoided. If we choose to shun or deny the physical world it leads to unconscious living and shows a lack of mental strength. It would show far more discipline and character to be successful in the physical AND spiritual life at the same time. Say what you will about such selflessness, but to me it demonstrates only a portion of a successful life; only half the coin.

Denying What Is

Denial leads to unconsciousness because of the nature of consciousness as a calm state of acceptance. The conscious person does not fight against the world they live in and therefore does not resist their circumstances. They understand all life is necessary and all life is purposeful. This understanding leads away from struggle and into peace. You no longer deny the world as it is and wish it were otherwise. You accept it for what it is and find ways to make it otherwise. Do you see the difference?

Accepting what is and moving toward a change utilizes your circumstances to create the desired outcome. Denial fights against reality and attempts to push it away. This cannot succeed and leads only to suffering and self pity which is the work of the ego.

This is why the true test of living consciously is one’s reaction in stressful situations. If you can react with calm acceptance of what is and work with your reality toward your desired result, you are living consciously. If you seek to blame yourself or others and suffer mental anguish because of your circumstances, your unconscious suffering will become a part of your everyday experience.

Staying Conscious Everyday

Becoming conscious for short periods of meditation is easy and can be practiced by everyone. And while these short trips into peace are helpful to be sure, the real goal here is not for conscious living to be an occasional hobby but rather a sustained way of life. The goal is to create a new default pattern to your life wherein you feel peace and joy instead of suffering.

The challenge is to live your life as you live it now, but without the chatter of your mind and without the fear brought on by the ego; to balance your spiritual and pragmatic sides and begin using your ego as a precise tool to shape your life. But can you learn to do this in the middle of a traffic jam? Ah, the real test. You’re behind the wheel of your car in the middle of the highway and stuck behind a never ending line of other cars. You’re late for work, again, and you have that big meeting in an hour. Can you stay in the moment without getting caught up in fantasies about the future? Can you keep your mind inside the car, in the now, and accept the wait or will you rage against your reality and curse the fact that this had to happen on today of all days?

The answer for most people is obvious. They will react with the “why me?” attitude. Instead, what would happen if they let go and allowed the traffic jam to be as it was? What would happen if they simply sat back and said “yes” to their wait and gave no attention to the upcoming meeting and the waiting boss? Would the traffic move faster? Would they be in less trouble with the boss? Maybe not, but they would certainly feel happier and more in control of their own lives. They would shed the suffering of the unconscious mind as it rages against a world it cannot change, because the traffic has never caused suffering. Only the ego can create such pain and only your consciousness can do away with it.

And more often than not, these conscious people are given reasons to be happy. They accept their circumstances and work happily toward even better circumstances and they tend to succeed in their endeavors. On the other hand there are the unconscious people who blame others, wonder why bad things always happen to good people and put their fate in the hands of pure luck. These people tend to be unhappy and are constantly given reasons remain that way.

To stay conscious every day, one must learn to internalize the words, “all is as it should be.” If you can take this thought and turn it into your default reaction you need never again suffer from fear or confusion. This does not, however, mean that you will never experience sadness again. You will of course feel sadness, but you will never be overwhelmed or debilitated by it for you will understand that from your circumstances will arise precisely what you are looking for and that “all is as it should be.”

Live Like Water

The Tao Te Ching compares the all encompassing power of the Universe to water and there is no better comparison. It is fluid and moves smoothly from form to form. It flows in us and around us and is as malleable yet unstoppable as a river. You can bend it, dam it or harness it and yet never hold on to it. If your goal is to live your life consciously you must look to water for you answer.

When I was young, my middle school principle used to have a motto he would repeat every morning over the intercom. “Go with the flow,” he said. I came to hate that phrase. Looking back, I think he might have been onto something. If we can learn to live our lives like flowing water we can never find ourselves at an impasse, for water can never be stopped in its liquid state. It moves with the wind, it flows around rocks and over dams. It can be slowed or diverted but never stopped completely.

Seek to live every day as if you were water, accepting your path as it comes to you. With this mindset you could never find yourself stuck or in complete failure. These states wouldn’t exist for you. Where others see failure, you see a new place to flow. Be that flexible and that relentless, and be unstoppable.

These are easy methods of living. They require little energy on your part and in fact require far less energy than living and suffering unconsciously. All that is required is the reminder and the belief that ?all is as it should be? and that you, too, may flow with the easy and peace of water. Begin to internalize these beliefs now and you will soon find that your life begins to flow more smoothly. Setbacks that would have crippled you, now fall before you as if never there. You will discover that you always had this power for happiness and ease, but had channeled it into fighting against your world and feeding your own suffering and pain. Remove the power from your pain and you will find the will to live consciously every single day.

Posted in Being Proactive, Consciousness, Fear, Happiness, Law of Attraction, Relationships, Social Do's and Don'ts, Success, The Mind