Living your life more consciously isn’t instantaneous like “flipping a light switch”. Living life more consciously is a continuing process.
Conscious living is a mindset, a journey of personal evolution, and a framework to live life with a greater purpose and higher levels of overall happiness.
Sounds great right? Who couldn’t use a little more happiness?
As someone who’s not motivated by money, but motivated by becoming the best version of themselves, I practice (almost) all these examples on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
This article aims to give you a deeper understanding for what living more consciously might look like for you, and what tools you can use to implement greater meaning and happiness into your lifestyle.
Living a conscious life can look different for everyone. But there are certain elements that are true for everyone who truly lives a conscious lifestyle with an elevated level of true happiness.
Lets dive in.
Becoming Self Aware: Getting To (really) Know Yourself (deep down):
To live a more conscious life, you should understand that consciousness is a measure of awareness. How can you become more aware of yourself and who you are as a person?
That’s exactly what you need to find out. Here’s a few tips to increase your conscious awareness of yourself.
- Spend Time Outside
We spend so much time in front of screens and for the sake of sanity, it’s important to disconnect from screens and re-connect with nature. Spending only 20 minutes in nature a day has been shown to improve both your mental and physical health. Spending time in nature can lower your blood pressure, reduce stress, slow your heart rate, and boost your mood.
Nature moves at a slower pace than technology. Take deep relaxing breaths and try and connecting with the frequency and vibe of the natural environment to maximize your benefits. Slow down and take a moment to yourself to recognize how you feel. - Keep a Journal (reflect)
Most people spend life jumping from one thing to the next, one screen to the next, and one distraction to the next, never pausing to reflect.
Try keeping a journal to track your day, your thoughts, your feelings, your goals ect. This is helpful in a few ways. By authoring your own life, it allows you to process your thoughts and feelings and the end of the day instead of harboring onto them and feeling stressed like most people do.
Keeping a journal also gives you the opportunity to look back and reflect. Why were you so anxious a month ago and how did you get over it? Are you “rinsing and repeating” your daily routine more or less than you wants to? Do you notice any thought or behavioral patterns that you want to change going forward? - Recognize When You’re On “Autopilot”
We all do it. Come home from work and turn on the TV to relax. Maybe grab a beer or glass of wine? Start scrolling through your phone or turning on your laptop and typing in the same web address.
It’s called “checking out” or going on auto pilot.
Maybe you did the exact same mourning routine as you always do and then suddenly realized you were at work without remembering anything from the morning.
Most people go through years of life on “auto-pilot” with-out even realizing it. “Checking out” is OK from time to time, but are you happy when you’re checked out? Or are you escaping a boring and mundane reality?
To be more conscious just be aware of when and why you’re checking out. Or going on “auto-pilot”. - Recognize and Eliminate Distractions
We live in a world full of distractions. Every free app you’ve ever downloaded (Facebook,Tic-Tok, Instagram, twitter, ect) has a busines model based on distracting you with ads in order to make money.
But distractions aren’t just on social media, your phone in general, notifications on your phone, friends who only call when they need something, drinking, smoking, eating, watching TV, ect.
The list could go one forever, but what’s important is that you recognize that your time is important. Maybe your most important resource and distractions everywhere affect where and how you spend your time.
If you feel like you’re coming up short in life or not meeting your goals, then it’s time to consciously analyze your distractions in life, … and eliminate them. - Prioritize Time for Yourself
Taking time for yourself goes hand in hand with eliminating distractions and reflecting. Most people don’t take QUALITY time for themselves. If they do take time for themselves, they spend it in the car listening to the radio or scrolling on their phones.
Take “real” alone time with no distractions, just to sit quietly with yourself and think. Be comfortable with yourself.
Taking time to yourself allows you time to reflect, time to think, time to process your feelings and emotions, and time to plan and set goals for your future. By prioritizing alone time for yourself it will help you swallow reality, be more self-aware, and have a higher understanding for who you truly are as a person. - Consider Your Needs vs. Your Wants
We all “want” the new iphone, or a new car, or new clothes, ect. But do we really “need” those things. Why do you want them? To keep up with the Jones’s or to impress your friends?
Do you sub-consciously want these things to perch yourself higher on the social hierarchy pyramid?
Do really know why you want what you want?
Would your life be that much better? How much would these “wants” increase your level of overall happiness before something new came out that you want?
Don’t spend your time (and hard-earned money) chasing the latest and newest trends that don’t bring you any real happiness. All too often these “wants” are really distractions.
Focus on your needs and your goals if you really want to increase your happiness. - Accept Yourself
When you start to dig deeper into yourself, you may not even recognize who you really are deep down. Maybe you’re goofy and a little clumsy but you usually try to cover that side of you up.
Whoever you are (really are) embrace it and see how you feel.
Life it too short to try and pretend you’re someone that you’re not. Accept who you are, and let everyone else worry about who they are.
Accepting your personality is accepting reality, and anything else is just pretending. And pretending is exhausting after awhile. - Do What Makes You Happy
It sounds so simple, but millions of people around the globe spend their time locked in jobs, careers, and routines that kill their happiness.
What makes you happy and how much time do you spend doing that?
Do you prioritize your happiness enough, or do you get distracted by the day/day grind?
Those who live conscious lives, spend their time working towards goals and doing what makes them happy.
For me personally, progress is happiness. If I feel stale, stuck, or trapped in life I know it’s either time for a perspective shift or a physical routine change.
Whatever it takes to be happy. - Consumption Awareness
Are you aware of your contribution to society and your level of consumption (take vs. give)?
When we’re kids most of us grow up taking from society, unable to fend for ourselves. When we get older we start to work, get jobs, go to college, and contribute to society.
How aware do you think you are about how much you consume vs. how much you give back.
DO YOU buy things you don’t need?
Do you recycle? Do you order stuff on Amazon that you don’t need, or that you could easily buy locally? Do you eat / consume food that is produced unsustainably? Do use LED light bulbs? How much cheap crap from China do you buy?
Most Americans are dominated by materialism and consumerism.
Try taking a hard look at how much you consume in order to be more self-aware and more conscious of your environment and global community. - Living With Anger is Completely Your Choice
Are you aware that you can choose to be angry? Most people see anger as an involuntary reaction, and for many people it is.
But for people who live on a higher level of consciousness, they choose when to be angry and when not to be. They control their anger. Those who live consciously understand their anger.
Anger can come from a lot of different sources. Anger can come from fear. Anger can come from jealousy. Anger can come from resentment. And anger can come because someone hit your car with a shopping cart.
Anger can control you, or you can control anger. The choice is yours. But in order to give yourself the best chance at controlling your anger, you must consciously understand the root of where your anger is coming from and where you’re directing it.
Gaining A Deep Understanding For Your Fellow Humans
Understanding yourself is critical to raising your level of conscious awareness, but understanding everyone else’s perspective can deepen your understanding for reality in ways that self-reflection could never do.
1. Practice People Watching
People love going to the zoo to look at strange animals and how they interact with each other and their environment. But what stranger animal than the human being.
By watching other people interact with each other and the world it can give us deep insights on why people act a certain way. Most strangers act nice to each other in person (buy not in Youtube comments). Most people will hold the door for each other, even if one’s in a suit and the other person’s wearing ripped jeans and a cut-off shirt.
Also, most people will look up at the sky is someone else is. And most people will ignore a homeless man playing guitar, unless there’s already a crown around him, then most people will stop and listen.
Most people are inherently nice, and most people like to follow other people.
Try people watching for an hour and see what you can learn about humanity, and about yourself as well.
2. Understand That Your Choices Can Impact Other People
We like to pride ourselves on freedom here in America. But sometimes the freedom of your choice can take away the freedom of someone else’s.
Living more consciously means that you have the self-awareness to understand the full impact of your choices.
You can choose to believe what you want to believe, but understand that you could be wrong. Why do you believe what you believe, and what is the impact of your belief in relation to the “bigger picture”.
Someone else may believe something completely different and have the same big picture goal.
Come to a conscious understanding of the bigger picture when it comes to your beliefs and making decisions that effect other people.
3. Identifying The Path of Least Resistance
The path of least resistance is the path most traveled. Most humans take the easy way. If there’s a simpler option most people will take it, regardless of the consequences.
In society, the path of least resistance is rolled out like a red carpet for the masses. Go to college or get a job, rent or buy a house, work 40 hours a week for 30 years, buy a bunch of stuff, watch TV, retire.
That’s the life path of least resistance that most people take. But then again, most people aren’t living truly happy lives.
Are you like most people?
Recognize if you’re on the path of least resistance and if that’s the path that you want to be on. Sometimes being a rebel is more fun. And if you consciously recognize the path of least resistance that other people are taking, it can lead you to recognize a path less traveled which may be full of adventure.
Understanding What Your Life Goals Are
Those who live consciously have life goals, understand their life goals, and work towards their life goals. At all times, conscious souls know exactly where they are in the universe as it relates to achieving their goals. Some goals may take years to complete, some maybe months, and some might be a weekend list of goals.
- Choose Goals That Nourish And Inspire Your Soul
When we were kids we all wanted to be something. A famous singer, a firefighter, an NBA player, whatever. Some of us (not me) went on to live those lofty childhood dreams, and other took a different life path. And that’s OK.
But if you find yourself looking for a change in life, looking for greater happiness, a more conscious way of living life, then it’s time to create some new life goals.
Write em’ down, choose goals that feed you joy. You may not even be sure if it’s something you can accomplish, but that OK.
If you know what give you happiness in life, then spend the next year, 5 years, 10 years working towards that goal. Your other option is standing still.
Conscious living is working towards life goals even if they’re 10 years down the road. - Independence
Most people subconsciously want more freedom and independence. If you’re dependent on someone or something for your survival, it causes feeling of not being in control, feeling of being a burden, and feelings of resentment. All negative feeling and all feelings not related to happiness.
Thing about what independence means to you and if more independence related goals would mean more happiness and higher levels of consciousness. - Evaluation of Importance
Why is something important to you? How important is it?
Part of living more consciously is always being aware of the level of importance of what you’re doing.
Understand what your priorities are both ling term and short term. - Identify Negative Influences & Barriers
What’s getting in the way of your goals? Do you need to level up your skills? Do you need to go back to college? Do you need more job experience in a related field?
Is your very own ego getting in the way ? (here’s a article I wrote where you can find out)
Are you having trouble finding enough time? Do you need to cut out negative friends, distractions, or unsupportive influences?
Make an effort to consciously identify all barriers and negative influences in your life.
Understanding Of The World That Surrounds All Of Us
It’s hard to live a conscious life with-out having a deep understanding for reality and the world as a whole. There’s almost 8 billion people on our planet all sharing the same air, the same global supply of resources, and completely different experiences which impact our individual perceptions of reality.
The world is not something that anyone will likely completely understand, but we can always try and learn more.
1. Embrace and Celebrate People for their Differences
In order to be more conscious of the world and your place with-in it it’s very important to come to the understanding that your perception of reality, is different that the other 8 billion peoples perception of reality.
This might be obvious, but every single person experiences life a little differently. These individual experiences dictate how we view the world. Sometime a traumatic experience can change how we see the world for the rest of our lives (either good or bad).
The key for living a conscious life is to recognize that of course everyone is different, and to celebrate people for what makes them different. Not to break off into small “tribes” or groups and ostracize people because their different.
A different perspective might just be a better view to give you a clearer understanding for common truth.
2. Consider Your Impact On The World
Part of understanding the world, is being conscious of your place within it, and your impact on it. Some people have a bigger impact on the Earth than others, but we all do have an impact (even if it’s small).
Mark Zuckerberg changed the world with a single idea with Facebook (Meta). His impact on society has been huge, even though I don’t use Facebook. But is it a positive impact on society or is Facebook killing our attention spans and dividing countries in half?
Too early to tell is his impact is positive or negative.
My neighbor Immigrated from Cuba, was an accountant for 40 years, had 4 kids, 10 grandchildren, always recycled, had solar panels on his house, and spread joy to everyone in the neighborhood. His impact was smaller than Mark Zuckerberg, but no question, my neighbor has had a positive impact on the world.
Be conscious of your attitude and the effects of your actions on the world.
Conclusion: Conscious Living Is A Never Ending Journey
By identifying what living more consciously might look like hopefully you can implement some of these conscious living examples into your life to increase you level of conscious self-awareness, and happiness.
To take a step further, check out another article I wrote her for tips you can use on how to actually go about implementing aspects of conscious living into your life.
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Big thanks for diving in with us today!
