Some of us go through the motions of life, painfully, and others seem to have it all figured out. Is a conscious life the solution to this challenge?
Taking Control Over Your Life
Conscious living can be described as living your life, being fully aware of what is good for you and what’s not, and acting accordingly. When you live consciously, you are fully present with your environment.
Self-awareness is one of the keys to conscious living. If you’re not aware of who you are, what you can do, what you want, you will easily be lost. Having that self-awareness is the key to taking control over your life.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t be impulsive, or creative, and free. On the contrary, being free means that you can make decisions. Without freedom, you can’t make your own choices. Being free is being able to choose. And when you can choose, you’re in control.
Intentional Living for a Conscious Life
A lot of people go through life making easy decisions on the moment, because they think it makes them free.
Some people snooze as soon as the alarm goes off, instead of getting up and starting their day.
More will skip breakfast for a lack of time and therefore end up being hungry, fill up on coffee and unhealthy snacks all mornings.
Some buy a sandwich and a soda for lunch because it’s the easy option.
Other people collapse on the sofa at the end of the day to watch TV and order a takeaway, because it’s easy.
But all of these decisions won’t keep them free from making tough decisions later. More likely they will struggle with chronic health issues, fatigue, lack of energy, poor mindset.
When you live with intention, you make tougher decisions now to reap the rewards later. You choose to go the extra mile because you know it benefits you. And you can live your best life.
What’s the Impact on Your Daily Life?
- Relationships: when you know what you want from a relationship, you’re more likely to attract and choose a life partner that fits what you need. In friendships, it is the same. Knowing what you want and deserve will make you more picky, but choose better. Remember, you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely.
- Career: being intentional about your job makes you more interested and invested. You’re not just one more person to do the job, you’re here for a reason and your surroundings notice. That can help you go up in the hierarchy if employed, or grow a business if you’re on your own. Living consciously impact your attitude, which is so important in a job.
- Finances: When you’re paying attention to how you run your life, it impacts your behaviours. And that goes for your spending habits, the way you consume products and services. It can be easy things like buying local and organic, but also buying better quality. That can lead to buying more expensive items that lasts longer. This means that you don’t need to buy a new pair of shoes or 5 new skirts every season. You can rely on the durability of your items.
- Health: Practising conscious living means having respect for your life, your mind, body and soul. You want your body to be healthy to support you in your life adventures and ambitions. That can be eating more plant-based ingredients to nurture the bound you have with nature. Exercising is vital, so your body can run on its optimal mode. Cultivate your mind with books and podcasts, practice mindfulness with meditation or tai-chi. Be mindful about your technology and social media consumption.
- Environment: maybe the one we think about instantly when we mention conscious living. We take care of the earth, and work towards eco-friendly behaviours. Shopping local, limiting your plastic consumption, cooking more meals without meat, paying attention to your electronics consumption, are all examples of this.
You Can Choose Your Thoughts, Choose a Conscious Life
Choosing your thought is something that not everyone knows we can do. We are all responsible for your thoughts. It’s a fact. You can indulge in sadness by listening to sad songs, you can indulge in feeling sorry for yourself. You can convince yourself that because of your past, you’ll never amount to anything. And you can complain all the time that life is hard.
Or you can stop the sad train, and rewire your brain. You can master your own thoughts, and meditation and journaling are great tools for that.
A thought creates an emotion. An emotion creates a behaviour, and pushes us to act, or not. And these actions are what creates habits.
Choose conscious living, choose what you want to think about, feel the control you have over your life. And be happy.
To read about habits that stick, go to The Secrets to Building Healthy Habits; or 7 Reasons You Need to Exercise (and it’s not to lose weight).
