5 Steps to more conscious living

Ever feel like a peice of wood drifting through life, not going in the direction you want to go? Is it clear to you how you got where you are today? Do you feel drawn to change anything?

Living consciously is about taking control of your life, about making deliberate decisions rather than making decisions willy-nilly without thought.  This is about consciously creating the life that we want rather than settling for the one that somebody tells us we deserve. Consider these 10 steps to more conscious living;

1.  Reflect regularly on your life

This involves reflecting on who you think you are, how your feel and behave in different situations.  It includes growing more aware of patterns playing out through your relationships and being open to change.

2. Reflect on how you spend your time

Notice whether you focus attention on what matters most to you or, whether you are working toward doing that in the future. The key is to find courage to stop doing things that do not stimulate creativity or fulfull you, to stop interacting with people who do not matter, stop spending money on stuff we do not need to impress people. What would you ideally be doing and where?

3. Nurture your sense of humor

Laughter is brings balance and recalibrates well-being. What tickles your funny bone? Laugh longer & more often. Spend time with children who giggle and animals that play spontaneously. Be open to allowing some of this to rub off on you. Allow yourself to be silly.  Be okay with it. Lose the conditioned fear of embarassment.

4. Review life goals often

Notice what you truly feel destined to do with your gifts and talents. Are you are in sync or off track? Ru moonlighting? Its useful to grow aware of the nature of distractions we create or excuses we make to hold ourselves back from doing what the heart knows fuels our spirit.

5. Reflect on your impact on the environment

This includes what you eat, how its produced, how far it travels to get to you. How do you feel when you eat? Are you being authentic, eating what feels right or making changes as your body gives you signs to do so? Which modes of transport do you use? Be mindful that everything we do affects more than us, but everything around us in some way.

Somebody asked me

Somebody asked me why it sometimes seems like everything is working against them. The feeling that they are often under the wire to get places or pay bills on-time, that they feel disempowered by people or conditions. In a nutshell, this individual seems to move through degrees of stress to discomfort, and forgets one may also thrive on conditions of uncertainty.  Who can relate here?

What if, whenever things seem to evoke negativity or fear, we could stop and breathe deeply?

What if, we could shift from thinking something or someone is working against us, to sensing everything is always working in our favor in some way, nudging us in the best possible direction?

What if, the next time we wish we were somewhere else, doing something else, with someone else, we ask ourselves how being right where we are, is itself a blessing?

What if, we could remind ourselves, other way always exist to see, feel or respond differently to our physical, mental or emotional or other conditions? Which other avenues are opening to us?

What if, we could let go of wishing we could control everything, and simply trust more?

Tune into a deeper purpose

Many people are conditioned to create a vision for a happy life and set out to realize it. Such a vision tends to include a profession and situation imagined to be fulfilling.  And yet, as life challenges arise, shake us up, our experience deepens, and curiosity arises.  People can go through whatever formalities are deemed necessary in life, but these never interfere with what is most important. When ready, we choose to go beyond the familliar to uncover something more.

As we realize we create our lives, it dawns that we also have the power to change how we create and what we see. It also grows clearer that some people create a bigger illusion of importance for themselves than others. Adopted filters block seeing more clearly. To allow ourselves to develop is to grow conscious of our capacity to look at things differently.  When ready, it dawns that laying a foundation for a whole new life is unrelated to conditioned ideas of who we are.

We exist for those for whom we exist.  Every encounter we create to help us recognize perception, explore new connections and opportunities for growth.  To perceive what is really going on in our lives and the Universe, one need only look into one's self without filters.  Everything we devise arises so we get-to-know thoughts, feelings, emotions and aspects of Self often missed.  Everything we uncover depends on the purity of our thoughts and the motive for asking.  All experience invites us to tap into more confidence so we do what feels right even if it scares us.

In Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone, some characters say "there is no such thing as magic."  Those that experience a different reality hold a different view on magic and what is possible. The wizard Dumbledore says, "The time comes Harry when we must choose between what is right and what is easy." Thus, purpose evolves with us, how we choose to grow and redefine priorities.

Three views of Life

Our view on a given situation depends on our magnification, that is, our relative physical, mental emotional closeness to or distance from it. What may be viewed as a conflict or issue close-up may seem like part of a larger harmonious system from a wider vantage point.  Where one person sees a source of tension, another sees as a passing wave in the vast ocean of order. All views are equally correct as they are simply different points of view. How we experience life varies based on our level of consciousness.  Let's reflect on three views on life;

1. As Completely Random

We can look at life from an extremely passive perspective: assuming our existence is a bit precarious, that we have little or no control over things, not over how we came to be born, or who our parents and social conditions are or how we make our way through existence.  Some people view themselves as a pure accident, that everything is a random occurrence, from how the Earth and life came to be to more complex interactions.  What if things that happen inside or external to our bodies, felt like they do not belong or do not even feel connected to other happenings? Does life sometimes feel like it is a thing that happens to you?

2. As Controlled by External Authority

Another view on life is everything that occurs unfolds under the authority of a higher force beyond our control that we somehow feel obliged to obey.  From this view, we are at the mercy of the world around us, still, to a degree helpless, yet having a slight influence on the direction of our lives, provided we follow the rules which have been laid out for us. Sometimes we may push the envelope or bend the rules. As confidence grows, we may also rediscover a journey to reclaim personal power. Our sense of identity, success and self-worth may all seem to be wrapped up in the results of our actions.

3. As Energy

To see that everything is a play of energy pulsing on and off in space, changes how we perceive and interact with what occurs. If energy is us, flows within, through and beyond us, and we decide how to respond to everything, then personal responsibility takes on new signficance. We move through perceptions of order and disorder, love and fear, pleasure and pain like waves, with opportunity toa gain insight. As we realize this, we no longer panic about whatever is arising. From this view, at every moment, everyone has access to the same patterns of energy.  We each have unique filters, conditionings and ways of experiencing.  The moment we see space is connective, we begin to understand that we are not exclusively a body or what creates our adopted identity.  The stream of a candle is a stream of hot gas just like each human is a complex flow of energy that is whirling and dancing through space. What happens as fear ceases to control our life choices? We may fear on the surface of getting burnt by fire, getting sick, losing a relationship, your job, a contract or something else we currently hold dear.  Yet, we can come to see a continuity of energy flow, the rhythm of comings and goings. 

Ultimately, the perspective we take on life and a given situation, is based on our self- and wider insight into consciousness. Being in control and being ourselves cannot be understood without recognizing something out of control and what it is to not be ourselves.  Yet, our attention is captured by what is moving in the foreground rather than what is in the background and relatively still. We actually notice far more detail. Our views on ourselves, and life and our conditions, are limited to what we are taught is important. We pay attention only to what our values define as our priorities.  As our perception expands, what we notice changes. How we spend time also changes. 

Shift toward greater integrity

Sometimes we get the feeling we are getting ahead of ourselves or, are not quite caught up with where we think we are meant to be.  Reflect on examples where you feel in between places or conditions.  These are signs of ongoing shifts toward greater authenticity.  Notice where the universe is echoing this message back:

• Ever ask someone to assist with a project and that person responds after the job is already done?
• Ever get asked to provide a service in a geographic area after you have moved to another location?
• Ever feel like you are evolving at a different pace than your partner or entourage?
• Ever witness individuals you know not behaving in their integrity and feel awkward or restless about it?
• Ever see an honesty box by a roadside fruit stand and read a sign that some people take without paying, but feel compelled to pay?
• Ever intuitively pay the toll for the car behind or feel drawn to show compassion in new ways

Now is the reflect on deeper sources of discomfort.  What messages is the Soul really offering?