Conscious Living - Making it a Practice

One of the things that I'm really focusing on in my coaching work is helping people to see their life as a never ending opportunity to be fully present, alive and alert to this moment. This practice never ends. We have a choice to make every 1/60th of a second regarding how we want to live. The practice of conscious living is completely based on this issue of choice. The basis of the practice is remembering over and over that in each moment, we choose how we relate to what is showing up in life. It is not automatic, set in stone, or 'just the way it is.'

Now, this does not mean that we can practice choosing to make our problems magically disappear. We can't necessarily choose to lose 20 lbs. in an instant or to snap out of a depression that has been with us for years. The practice is much more about the realization that there is something more essential to our nature than our thoughts, feelings, or bodies. Because there is a quality of awareness that is more foundational to our nature than what we think or feel, we always have a choice in how we relate to what we think and feel. We can either identify and attach to the depression or judgment around the extra weight, or we can bring a sense of compassionate non-resistance to these issues.

Whatever is showing up in in our minds, we can choose to focus on this foundational awareness that we all have. We can rest our attention there and settle into the space around what we think and feel. Once again, that doesn't mean that our mental, emotional problems will just go away or that the circumstances of our lives will magically transform for the better. It means that we choose to identify with a much more vast aspect of our nature that doesn't actually have any problems or feel any resistance to present moment reality.

Choosing to shift our focus out of confusion, fear, self-judgment, and struggle and into this place of self-love, spaciousness, and acceptance is always a possibility. It takes a strong commitment to our own sanity and well-being to remember to do this all of the time, to put our true purpose first, and to consciously refrain from the millions of forces out there and inside of us that distract us from what really matters. This is the practice of a life time. It is not based on some sort of technique. It is not esoteric or fancy. The truth is that we all have access to this all of the time. It's just that very few of us actually know this and make an ongoing commitment to this knowledge regardless of what they think and feel or the nature of their current life circumstances.

If you feel shut down, irritable, and stressed out, you can choose to bring a compassionate awareness to that and set intentions to shift your focus to your purpose-based Self. If you feel anxious and worried, like you can't find the 'off' switch, you can choose to breathe into this experience with non-judgmental attention. Always, always- we have a choice. This is not always easy to accept, but the realization of this is the basis of ultimate freedom. It is a practice, like anything else. At first, it feels awkward. Eventually you cease to view it as a practice at all; it is just who you are and how you live.

You can very much make this practice a game where you wake up each and every day and say to yourself, "OK, how much awareness, equanimity, and peace can I cultivate on this day?" Every day, you commit to this above all else. This is a very powerful way to live your life.

Kevin Doherty is a licensed acupuncturist, life and business coach, and the author of The Purpose Principle: 11 Strategies to Help You Experience Ultimate Freedom in Your Health, Wealth, and Love Life. To get a free copy of Kevin's Purpose Principle ezine and to learn more about the book, go to http://www.PurposePrinciple.com