Essentially, conscious living is about being present and living our lives with awareness, knowing how our actions affect ourselves, the lives around us and the world at large. The scope of awareness has no limits whatsoever, from awareness of our environment to our relationship, our emotion, our attitude and even our deepest inner being.
The more consciousness we bring to any aspect of life, the greater our power to create positive and meaningful changes. What would we do, for instance, if we want to boost our physical and emotional well-being? First and foremost, we would need a minimal level of consciousness to realise something is not right that needs us to work on it. And with that, we can then be honest with ourselves and continue to expand our awareness from here on. We may choose to start an exercise routine, adopt a plant-based diet, lead a more active lifestyle, and so forth. Consciously observing the outcomes of our actions will help fine tune our focus.
Then again, a study by Professor Daniel Gilbert shows that humans are on autopilot nearly half the time. When we are not consciously directing our lives, we tend to live our lives out of conditioned habits and impulses, and chances are we will be deprived of opportunities to experience a deeper level of fulfilment and joy.
Living in the new millennium, we get to enjoy the awe-inspiring benefits of rapid technological advance. However, the world seems to be lurching from one crisis to another, from the worsening climate change, to raging pandemic, growing waste, surging unilateralism, etc. These challenges constantly remind us that global ills share root causes, wherever we are, our lives are connected.
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi
This quote points to the inner self work we need to do before we attempt to change the world. It is about connecting inwards, examining ourselves up-close and confessing our faults, before purging ourselves of vices and weaknesses. Bringing consciousness is a never-ending journey and waking up to life is a constantly evolving process. The more we reflect on our daily life, the more we realise just how many areas we are not fully conscious. Let’s be the change we want to see, together, we can shape a better world.
