Conscious Living – Gay Hendricks
Conscious Living has its roots in the ancient traditions of Stoicism and Taoism, and helps us to overcome obstacles and fears and to awaken our own creativity.
At its simplest, conscious living is the art of feeling your feelings, speaking authentically, knowing your life purpose, and carrying out effective actions that contribute to your well-being and the well-being of others. The moment we commit ourselves to living consciously, we embark on a journey of wonder through the real world, on a sacred path of infinite practicality. I believe that committing to the journey makes us fully human. I believe also that wholehearted participation in the journey is our very best way of returning thanks for the gift of life
Unexpected Forms of Magic
“Once I had committed myself to the path, I discovered an unexpected form of magic. Invisible pathways open up through the universe. We meet people who are on a similar path, and we are given forms of assistance that seem like magic. All these things happened as I opened myself to discovering who I was and what my true purpose in life was.” — Joseph Campbell
If we want to experience some unexpected magic, we’ve got to throw our knapsacks over the wall, commit, and let the invisible hands guide us on our quest!
Five Required Lessons of the Journey
- Feel All Your Feelings Deeply: “Always and in every moment”
- Seek Your True Self: “Focus first on who you are, then let your actions flow from this place of deep self-knowledge.”
- Let Go of the Uncontrollable: “There are some things you can control and some things you cannot.”
- We Are All Made of the Same Thing: “When we go deeply enough into who we are and who others are, we will find our organic connection with divinity and theirs.”
- Life Is Fullest When We’re Most True to Ourselves: “If you express what needs to be expressed within you, you will be happy and fulfilled. If you don’t, you won’t.”
Let Go of the Past
We keep ourselves so tied up in regretting the past and fearing the future that we don’t have any energy left to figure out who we are and what we want to create right now.
A key aspect of living consciously is to BE PRESENT. We can’t do that if we’re constantly churning through the negative stories of our past. We got a let it go and become present to the joy of this moment.
Choose Goals or Go with the Flow? Both, please!
- To live a full life, we must be open to the Mystery and live a purposeful life within its spacious context.
- Quit seeing everything as an “either/or” equation and open into the possibility of “both/and” situations.
- We are either 100 percent or not committed at all.
- Once you make a 100% commitment to something, there are no exceptions.
- Successful people adhere to the “no exceptions rule” when it comes to their daily disciplines.
Being One-Selved Organisms
We are designed to be one-selved organisms: when all of the multitudes we contain within us are embraced in the fullness and oneness of our core selves, we are happy.
The first steps of healing and growth are awareness and acceptance-consciousness and integration: becoming aware of and accepting disowned parts of the self.
Stoics Rock!
The Stoics lived in a time when a philosopher was a combination of therapist and inspirational teacher, whose province was the conscious encounter with daily life.
Let go of your beliefs and expectations of how things must be. Ground yourself thoroughly in reality, then select carefully what you would like to change about the others, the world, or yourself.