What Does it MEAN to Live With Consciousness and Mindfulness?
What is this thing called living a mindful life? What do people actually mean when they say that they are living with consciousness?
I don't ask this facetiously because it's actually something I have strived to do for a very long time. And I don't mean that in that strange "woke" way everyone seems obsessed with, these days!
Most of the time, I think it means basically being aware of your surroundings and the people around you and not being too self-absorbed, to the point where you're not aware of the impact your presence has both on your environment and the people you encounter along the way.
When I decided I wanted to write about this I wasn't quite sure how to approach this topic. And this may turn out to be a massive flop!
I do think that — most of the time — consciousness is something we arrive at indirectly because we find ourselves in a situation where we are perhaps complaining about somebody else's lack of consciousness. In those moments, we are suddenly aware of the importance of mindfulness.
Let's say that a person takes a particular action and we find ourselves thinking "how hard would it be to just pay a little bit more attention to your surroundings and to the impact you're having on the world???"
Much of the time, if you call somebody on something "unconscious" they did they will come back at you with some statement to the effect that "oh, I wasn't aware." Or they get outright defensive and stand by their "right" to do whatever they want, whenever they want. And maybe that gets us a little bit further towards understanding what mindfulness and consciousness really is.
I think one of the most common excuses (or rationalizations) I hear for why somebody isn't more mindful than they are is that "they just don't have time." Or maybe they'll say that "it's just too much work."
There is undeniably a certain amount of truth to this!
That said, it's less of an individual truth than it is perhaps a societal truth. We live lifestyles in which we simply don't have any time on our hands and such a thing as taking extra time to be mindful of our surroundings and other people is almost like a luxury we don't have. Sad, but at least partially true.
"How can I pretend that I have time to be mindful when I barely have time to get enough work done that I can pay my rent?" somebody might argue. Surprisingly, I will not declare that to be an invalid perspective!
Consciousness IS a lot of work.
Vito Mucci — a friend of mine who wrote the book "Coffee for Consciousness" which is almost 600 pages of "light reading" even points out that it takes a lot of effort to live consciously.
I guess one of the things I also want to re-emphasize here is that I don't equate "consciousness" and "mindfulness" with the so-called "wokeism" that is running rampant through the world these days. A lot of that, to be quite honest, ends up coming across as being more like a toxic form of entitlement and self-involvement. Or what a friend of mine might call "spiritual mooching" on people's energy.
For me, it's mostly a matter of just making as small a footprint as possible on the world as the result of my having been here, and if — as part of my process of being here — I can somehow avoid causing suffering for others (and for myself, for that matter!) then perhaps I've done a right thing.
But it does mean that I need to stop and be aware of what I'm doing before I do it rather than just stumbling forward in constant "reactionary mode."
All in all, I think it's worth it...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!
How about you? Do you try to live consciously? Is that even a thing you consider? What about mindfulness? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 2024.06.14 00:30 PDT
x796/2030
Yes, under the guise of something else entirely.
It does indeed require more effort to live a life more mindfully, whether it is internally, externally or both - and unlikely that most of us will ever truly "master" it in as many facets or aspects as we may like because as you said - our lifestyles don't really allow for it... or rather - they don't make it very easy.
I think that the internal focus of living in such a way should be our first stop because that is where the shift in mindset will occur. If we dive straight into the "outward" aspects... it may not genuinely resonate with us, which in a sense could make the whole thing a little shallow feeling - even reaching the point of abandoning it because it is not really in sync with our inner selves.
Though having said this - I can only really speak for myself... and I am definitely still doing a lot of the "internal stuff", but I will say and have definitely noted that as I put more focus and time into this... the other side of the coin begins to come almost naturally, so it (in my case anyway) isn't so much about finding or making the time to "live and do" in a certain way - it just IS that way and I find myself being a lot more accepting of that - and the fact that if I want my presence here to have a certain outcome and impact... then that adaptation to change becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Slower living in a nutshell haha! - Gives us time to think, to breathe, to process, absorb and then move forward with intention or physical action in "better ways".
I don't know if anything I have said will even make sense to anyone else who reads it haha... :D but its the though that counts right?! :P
I feel like it's an interesting concept. It is something we should do, from various points of view.
Being aware helps us to happiness, we can make better decisions sensibly.
On the other hand, it helps the environment. People do things for the sake of doing them, evading responsibility for everything. This has led us to everything that we are living today, and that we are trying to escape. Consciousness is a fundamental part of humanity.