What is Conscious Living?
In today's world, we often tend to go through the motions of our daily lives without giving much thought to many of our choices. Many of our activities have become routine, and we go through them the way we always have. These choices and activities span the breadth of our lives: the food we eat, the cars we drive, the thoughts we think, the way we interact with the rest of the world.
Conscious living, quite simply, means being conscious of the choices we make as we go through life. It implies that we take responsibility for our lives, and for the situations in which we find ourselves. Being conscious of our actions and thoughts can be an overwhelming process at first, but it can also be overwhelmingly rewarding. It is taking a step away from being in a place of victim mentality, where one blames others or situations for their current state of mind - and state of being.
We have heard many different times, in many different ways, that every action has a reaction; every choice has a consequence; you reap what you sow; your karma will come back and either bite you or bless you. Being aware of your choices as you make them is living consciously. Even so, often we are well aware of the potential consequences of a particular choice and choose it anyway. Simply knowing what you are choosing is living consciously.
We are not reeds in a river, swaying soley in obedience to the rushing water. Nor are we feathers floating on the wind. We are living, breathing, thinking creatures. We have remnants of instincts still alive in our bodies and minds, and for a reason: they are what have allowed our species to live so long and evolve thus far. Yet we also have intellect and the added power of perception to aid us on our human journey. And more than all that, we have the power of choice.
We have the power - we always have it - to choose our life's circumstances. So often it seems as if we are trapped in one way or another. The truth, however, is that we have chosen to be trapped. Many situations do arise that are indeed out of our own hands. They can tear apart our lives, rip away the ground that supports us, throw us into the darkness, and so much more. Perhaps such moments are simply the consequences born of our actions - perhaps they are not. They can be traumatic, they can be dangerous, or they can be blessings. It matters not what happens to us. What matters is what we choose to do with what has happened. We choose either to fear the situation suddenly upon us and play the victim to life's unfolding, or to embrace the sudden insanity of life and choose the next situation.
Choosing wisely is the foundation of conscious living. Knowing what one truly desires deeply aids one's ability to make wise choices. If we know what we want, if we can see the life we wish to live, if we know the truth in our own hearts, then we can make choices that invite those desires and visions into our waking lives. When we know these things, all the hardships and all the unfortunate situations become blessings. So many moments we wish we had not known become fuel for the fire, and strength for our souls, once we have opened our perceptions to see the moment for what it really was.
Many of us have endured traumas that would be quite mild when compared to some. But all of us have, at one point or another, encountered a situation so out of the ordinary that our lives were changed by it. Whether it was change for the better or the worse, it was change. How did we choose to face it? How did we choose to move on? Did we just sit and take it? Or did we take the tremendous change offered to us and roll it straightaway into a better life? A more desired life? A life closer to that we once dreamed of living?
Aside from the great moments, the traumatic moments, we make choices every day. How often do we think about the choices we are making? Sometimes there is a tingle in the gut when we make a wrong choice. Sometimes there is an incredible clarity of mind when we are making the right choice. Sometimes we enter this certain flow of life where so many right choices have been made that a great number of the choices to come have already been chosen for the higher good, and life requires no further thought from us to unfold in perfect alignment with our desires. In this place of flowing from one moment to the next lives the place so many of us long for. We long to live perfect human lives, abandoning stress and worry. While the idea of a perfect life can seem unattainable, it is entirely relative as to just whom is doing the living of that life. We all have different ideas of the perfect life, and we all can attain our own individual perfect life (so long as we have not "borrowed" our idea of a perfect life from another). There is no one to blame for the choices we make, save ourselves.
The more of us who are living consciously, responsible for our own actions, the better place our world will become.
Celebration Conscious Living Fair
If you will be in the central Colorado area in the Spring or Fall, you are invited to attend the Celebration Metaphysical Fair in Denver or Colorado Springs. There, you can find friends of like mind, tools for your journey, guides to help you find the way, and perhaps a teacher, too.