How to Live Consciously and Why it's the Key to a Better Mindset and Mental Health.
To live consciously is to regain control of the mind. The mind is a great servant but a terrible master. Without bringing conscious awareness into your life you become at the mercy of your own thoughts, trapped in an endless spiral of desires, past experiences, future anticipations and so on. The mind will never stop and you will never know you are trapped. Compulsive thinking is an addiction most of the world suffers from and they are unaware of it. How do we take back control then? To live consciously and bring awareness into our lives in all we do.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS
The first and most fundamental step to escaping this conundrum is to break the incessant thinking of the unconscious mind.
How do we do this?
By becoming aware we are NOT our thoughts,
we are the ONE that sees them.
Have you ever had a thought like "I'm so stupid, how could I have done that?" or maybe "I can't deal with myself".
Let's examine this further, who is the "I" that is AWARE that you did anything? Who is the "I" and who is the "myself"?
What I am pointing to is there is an awareness that exists independent of the thoughts of your mind. You are that awareness, the contents of the mind are just thoughts, like clouds, they float by and you watch them. Sometimes you engage with them and sometimes you just watch them pass by.
To live consciously is to become aware that we are aware.
I know, quite the paradox.
This awareness separates us from the mind and consequently starts to regain control over it. While there is a long way to go, you are on the right path.
"There is nothing more important to true growth than to realise you are not the voice of the mind, you are the one that hears it". -Michael Singer
THE MIND CAN NOT BE CONTROLLED WITH YOUR INTENTION
The mind cannot be controlled with your intention to control it.
Try it.
Don't think of a green monkey playing the trumpet.
Did you do it? Of course not, you specifically thought of exactly that thing.
Now TRY to not think of it.
Can you do it?
You cannot because in order to know you are NOT thinking of it you need to bring it to your awareness again and consequently think of that exact thing. You stop thinking of it when you have forgotten to think about it. Therefore you will actually never be conscious of something you are not thinking of.
Crazy right?
You can think of the mind like a pond, the thoughts are ripples on the pond. How do you get rid of the ripples? You can try to smooth out the pond with your hand but you'll just create more ripples. So how do you do it? You can't, it's only when you leave the pond alone does it smooths itself out and become crystal clear.
The art of meditation is to do exactly that. To be aware of the thoughts without engagement to the point that the thoughts subside altogether and you experience a still mind. A still pond.
"Trying to control the mind is like trying to flatten rough water with a flat iron, you just stir it up all the more. Leave it alone, it will quite itself" -Alan Watts
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND
The conscious mind is the mind in our awareness. You can imagine it like a spotlight. It shines on what we do, what we think, what we feel and so on. Like a spotlight, it focuses on one thing at a time. The unconscious mind is more like a floodlight, lights up everything else, and controls the rest.
This can be useful in certain situations, take for example driving, your spotlight consciousness is focused on the conversation you are having with the passenger. However, your floodlight consciousness is taking control of all the signs, hazards, speed, gears, lights and so on.
Have you ever driven home and wondered how you even did it because you can barely remember doing any of it? That's the unconscious mind.
Or a more simple scenario, maybe you make yourself a coffee and sit down to drink it and realise you didn't even acknowledge half of, if any, of that process, it's so automatic you do it without being aware you are doing it. This is the unconscious mind and the process of how a habit is formed.
The action moves from conscious to unconscious.
Why does our mind do this?
Simply, to preserve energy. Where you put your awareness, you put your energy. Your mind and body want to preserve energy. Once a process has been learnt so well your mind and body can perform it with little or no awareness present. This way you can preserve energy to focus on other things.
THE DANGERS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
The unconscious mind is the place of all reactivity, anger, uncontrollable emotions and more. Its grip is intense. It will pull you into it without your awareness present enough to see what is happening and say no.
Take an argument. Someone is angry and starts getting angry with you. At that moment most people will be sucked into it. Into unconsciousness. To defend themselves and their position and argue back. To react and fall into unconsciousness themselves.
We understand this easily with the hindsight of a situation. "Why did I react that way?" Again who is the One aware that "I" reacted at all?
The awareness is, that is you. The "I" you refer to is merely a created self of thoughts, experiences and beliefs.
Awareness is eternal, complete and transcendent of all thought forms. To become unconscious is to pull awareness into the self, and the ego and make it limited.
In the situation where you were regretful for how you reacted you have noticed that the mind became unconscious, it was pulled in and awareness which is limitless was identified with something limited like a position, a self, a right, a belief and so on.
So what are we supposed to do?
Remain conscious.
See the thoughts as they appear in your awareness, "she shouldn't be saying that!" "How could he do that!?" "She doesn't deserve me" and on it goes, over and over.
To remain conscious is to sit outside the mind and be in control. Easy said than done but the path to control of the mind. The path less travelled but the path to freedom.
"There is only Now. Nothing has happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will happen in the future; it will happen in the Now." -Eckhart Tolle.
LIVE CONSCIOUSLY
With all this in mind, what does it mean to live consciously?
It means, growing your awareness and becoming more present. We've all heard the "be in the now" and "be more present". Whilst they point to a good place, one thing to bear in mind is that you don't have to BE present. You are always already present. You can't be anywhere other than here and now, in the present moment.
The problem is, you allow your awareness to be pulled into thoughts and feelings outside the present moment. You may be sitting at the beach watching the ocean, but are you actually watching it intently, with your full awareness? Are you listening to the heartbeat of the waves crashing against the shore? Admiring the birds fly in perfect unison overhead. Allowing your gaze to flow out to the edge of the horizon, in awe of the wonders of the world?
Or are you actually in your mind?
Thinking.
Maybe what you are going to eat after? Maybe what colour that umbrella is? Maybe why you forgot to pack your sunglasses.
Where is your awareness?
Every time you catch yourself in thoughts or whatever it is that has pulled your awareness from the HERE and NOW. You have grown the strength of your awareness that bit stronger.
Like a bicep curl for the mind.
The stronger your awareness the more control you will begin to reclaim back from your mind and the more you will begin to live consciously and ultimately the more fulfilling life will become!
If you enjoyed this blog I'd recommend checking out:
Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now
If you have read this book already,
check out some similar ones at our book club!
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