When it comes to awareness of ourselves, many of us live without being fully aware of the decisions we’re making, and how they may affect us later in life. This sort of short term thinking can result in you drifting through life without meaning or purpose, and never really finding what our purpose of being here is.
People need to think before acting, and you can do this by making sure that you live consciously. A conscious lifestyle ensures that you’re self aware and living in the present moment. If you want to ensure you live a meaningful life, here’s how to live consciously.
What Does It Mean to Live Consciously?
To live consciously is to live with purpose and intention in your actions. There is no right or wrong way to live, but when you’re on your deathbed, will you be happy with the life you’ve led? Conscious living ensures that you can say yes.
This may simply be about being more mindful of yourself and the others around you. Or, it could be about taking into consideration the environment, and the effects us humans are having on the planet.
Perhaps you need to declutter or simplify your home you you can finally think clearly about what your goals are. Maybe you want to live a simple lifestyle that gives you more free time to do what you enjoy, or spend those valuable minutes with the people you love.
Whatever it is, conscious living allows you to prioritize the most important things in our life that do matter over the things that don’t. If you find yourself getting caught up in the struggles of everyday life, don’t worry too much – this is normal.
Conscious living means being deliberate about your actions. If you’re ready to do that, here are some ways that you can can started living consciously today.
How To Be More Conscious In Life
Think about how your purchases impact the world
When you purchase something new, consider to yourself: what are the effects on the earth with my buying this product? Every single purchase you make in your life will impact the world in some way.
This could be an impact on the environment if you’re buying clothes, or an impact on your health if you’re buying fast food. It can even be an effect on your well-being if you’re continually doing things that aren’t good for your body, like consuming alcohol.
Doing this for every situation can be tiring, but try doing it for a day and see if it changes the way that you do things on a regular basis.
Realize that material wealth does not automatically make you happy
The majority of us set a goal to try and accomplish something, and in our current times, material wealth is often used to measure that success.
Some people think that the only real way to achieve a successful life is by obtaning a big house and fancy cars. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, and we need to stop our obsession with material possessions.
Though money does have its place in the world, and the possessions you own can bring pride to your life, be careful to not put too much emphasis on material goods. Living life to the fullest is about much more than your net worth.
Choose positive values
We all have morality and values based on our own personal beliefs, and they make up the bulk of what we do on a regular basis. They are what defines us the most.
For this reason, it’s important that you choose values for yourself that are positive instead of negative. Everything action you make is influenced by your morals and values, so try to ensure that you’re always making the positive choice when available.
Bad values represent a negative life, whilst good values reflect a positive life and in turn, a positive future. To change the world, we need to ensure our values are just.
Being careful of your time
Time is often taken for granted. It is the one thing that you can never buy more of on this earth, no matter how much wealth you obtain.
With this in mind, it is important that we be careful how we spend our time. You should spend time wisely in a way that serves you and supports your life goals. A conscious existence means taking time out to be able to maintain a proper lifestyle that aligns with our long term goals.
Consider the real cost of every purchase
Every purchase that you make throughout the day has a cost, both in a monetary sense but also on your well-being. A coffee is just a coffee, but when we consider its financial cost, how much caffeine it has in it, and how many calories the milk contains, it’s a lot more than just a coffee.
This doesn’t mean that you need to stop your regular daily life activities and analyze them slowly. However, living a conscious life means taking these things into account.
Make gratitude part of your regular routine
It’s important that you reflect on what you’ve achieved in life, and give thanks for the things that we have. Unconscious living can lead to focussing on the negative aspects of our lives, without really appreciating the good things that we have.
It’s a good idea to make this part of your routine every day, and you can even start a gratitude journal that notes down all of the things you feel grateful for each day.
Focus on being intentional
Distraction in the modern world are so prevalent that we have to be very conscious to not get distracted from our end goal. To live a conscious life, you should pay attention to the things that you’re doing on a regular basis to ensure that you’re not wasting time.
Focus is very important in preparing for your future, and without it, you can potentially drift through months and years of your life without making any progress. So, focus your attention on the things in life that matter to you if you want to live a more conscious life.
Practice self-awareness
Self-awareness is something that’s not talked about enough, and with the increasing popularity of the internet, many people are lacking in self awareness of their actions.
Knowing who you are and why you do the things you do is important. Having an understanding of how other people see you is part of being truly self aware too – this can be another key step towards a purposeful and happy life.
Set achievable goals
Short and long-term goals in life should be of equal importance, and in fact, most long term goals are made up of many shorter term goals over a longer period.
Setting these personal goals can also be the sign of a growth mindset, as living consciously can help you to see growth in your life. It’s important that you set realistic objectives that are genuinely achievable in the time frames given.
Think about your relationships
It’s important to evaluate your relationships and try to improve them. This could be something as small as reconnecting with old friends, or checking up on your loved ones to see that they’re doing well. A conscious mind thinks about others as much as they think about themselves.
A better life can be had if we improve the relationships with those around us. Spending time with others is important for our well being over the long term.
Make decisions that align with your core values
Living consciously means identifying yourself as an individual. And as an individual, we all have our own morals and ethics that dictate what we think is good and bad. Gaining insight into your own values that influence you on a regular basis can help you to experience life consciously.
When one learns exactly what their values are in life, it becomes a lot easier to know who you truly are. It’s very likely that once you determine these core values, you can begin to make decisions that will benefit your life.
Conscious diet
Conscious life consists of eating nutritious food that serve our bodies well. This can be something as simple as choosing local produce over things that have been imported and frozen.
If you’re looking to try and reduce your footprint, you can make sure that the products you buy are also produced sustainably. Making conscious decisions around food can benefit both us and the other people on this Earth.
And finally… reflect
Reflecting on our life on a regular basis allows us to see what we may have gotten right, and where we may have gone wrong. Doing this allows us to make sure that we limit the mistakes that we make in life, because as humans, we try not to make the same mistake twice.
This can be around your recent history and what’s just occurred that day, but also around what you’ve achieved over recent years. Are you where you thought you’d be? If not, it may be time to start living consciously and making every day count.
