Beliefs And Consciously Living

Consciously living? What exactly does that mean? Isn't that what were doing? How could I live otherwise? I'm conscious and I'm living so I must be consciously living... no?

Well, yes. But that's not what I mean. By living consciously, I am referring to living in deliberate intent on a very conscious level and choosing to live proactively versus reactively. That means instead of reacting to events that occur in my everyday life, I choose to be proactive in my choices to events in my everyday life. What's the difference?

We do not react to events in our lives; we react to the beliefs we hold about events in our lives.

Here's an example. Suppose I'm driving along and some guy cuts me off in traffic. I have a couple choices to make. I can choose to get mad and think how inconsiderate the other driver was or I could choose to blow it off as some guy in a hurry and continue listening to the soothing music on the radio.

Your beliefs are going to dictate how you're going to react to this driver. Neither one is right nor wrong, they're just simple responses to an event. But the choice decided upon is either going to be a conscious choice or a choice made by default - an unconscious choice. The difference is extremely important.

You may hold a belief that people who cut off others in traffic are rude and irresponsible people. Can't really argue with that. And your belief about rude and irresponsible people elicits a certain reaction out of you. Rude people may make you angry based on a belief you hold about rude people. To another, rude people elicits a feeling of pity based on they're belief about rudeness.

These two individuals will most likely have two very different reactions to being cut off in traffic. And two very different lives based on that simple belief. See how it works? Your belief about the event is what elicits the kind of response you exhibit, not about the event itself.

Why is this important? It's extremely important if we have a deep desire to understand why we are living the lives we live and to make changes to those aspects of our lives we no longer wish to experience. If I can consciously understand why I react to certain events in my life, all I have to do is understand my belief about what it is I want to change. Once I understand the belief, I can then make the conscious decision to change the belief.

But how do I change the belief? A belief is nothing more than a thought you keep thinking over and over. To change the belief, change the balance, focus and repetition of the thought. Consciously change your focus to what you want the new belief to be. This is consciously living. This is being proactive.

I flew for the Navy years ago and one of the tenants taught to all naval aviators is the concept of "situational awareness". This is the idea of being coupled to the dynamics of your environment. Using this principle, you can see by becoming aware of your environment and your beliefs as they relate to your environment, you can consciously create the circumstances you desire to experience in your life.

By choosing a proactive response to events as demonstrated through beliefs, we are taking rightful control of the circumstances in our life, which leads to a wonderful and empowering sense of well-being.

Robert Hunt is the creator of MySelfDevelopment.net [http://myselfdevelopment.net] - Brain Food For Personal Development