Are You Living Consciously?

Do you tend to live in a half wake, half conscious state? Think about it. Do you roll back over in the mornings and hit your snooze a couple times then roll out of bed, head down the hall & make coffee in a half wake state? Check our my three suggestions to help you life more consciously.

What did you do when you first woke up this morning? Taking this further, do you really think about what you’re going to do when you get out of bed, or do you hit the snooze, roll over, turn the alarm off the second time, get up, go down and make coffee, and continue on without thinking? What would happen if someone had not set up the coffeemaker the night before? Would you notice if it was unplugged?

Most of live our whole lives, to some extent, in this half-waking, half-conscious way.

We know what we’re doing, but we don’t think about it. We don’t stop to consider whether this is the right job for us, whether this friend is dragging us down, whether we need to spend more time on what we really love and enjoy.

We just don’t think about our lives.

Man is, as far as we know, the only animal with a mind that can observe itself. What that means is, we have a conscience and a consciousness.

So why are we still doing things that don’t work for us, and not bothering to change anything?

Let’s look at it this way. Suppose you’re a 40-year-old woman. Your aunts, grandmother, great grandmother on your mother’s side all lived into their early 90s. Your mother is doing well and going strong, as they say.

You have at least 50 years to live, if you don’t get hit by a bus sometime in the next 50 years.

How often do you think about how you want to live those years? As your birthdays approach, do you stop and think consciously about how you’re going to spend the next twelve months of your life, and how you want that next year to affect the next 50 years?

When I talk about this to some people, their ears glaze over and they start thinking I’m suggesting just sitting around and thinking about thinking. Which, actually, I’m not.

What I’m talking about is thinking while we’re living. When we are planning our job move, or our vacation, or making plans with a “friend” we don’t really like that much, we can be very conscious of what we want and what we don’t want, and of what it takes to get what we do want and avoid what we don’t want.

I’m not suggesting we spend time every morning thinking about whether this breakfast cereal is the one we want to eat for the next five decades. I’m talking about the decisions we make, that make us who we are. I’m suggesting we become more conscious of those decisions, and make more of them, to become who we really believe we are. That’s the only way, after all, to have the life you really want.

How can you live more consciously?

1. Identify what conscious living would mean to you.
2. Spend time each day thinking about how you live.
3. Make a decision now that makes you more of who you are tomorrow. 

Thanks to Nadim at X-Day Challenge for recommending this post, to The Next 45 Years for featuring this post in the Personal Development Carnival, to Widow’s Quest for including this in the Carnival of Positive Thinking, to Life Balanced for featuring this in the Balance Your Life Carnival, and to Empowered Soul for inclusion in the Carnival of Truth.

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