Conscious Living

“We are good times waiting to happen.” Sign me up!

This reminds me of another favorite teacher of mine: Joseph Campbell. He tells us that a vital person vitalizes those around him and that our “quest” (or hero’s journey as he called it) is all about following our bliss and becoming alive (aka living consciously)!

Here’s a little excerpt from his interview series with Bill Moyers (see Notes on The Power of Myth for more mojo):

Moyers: “In this sense, unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we’re not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.”

Campbell: “But in doing that, you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there’s no doubt about it. The world without spirit is wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, and who’s on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it’s alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.”

Well, it’s impossible to read that and not refer to Joseph Campbell again. And to W.H. Murray. And how about some love from Tal Ben-Shahar, the Harvard professor who teaches the most popular class on campus and shares his positive psychology wisdom in his great book Happier? We’ll kick it off with Campbell and Moyers again:

Moyers: “Do you ever have this sense when you are following your bliss, as I have at moments, of being helped by hidden hands?”

Campbell: “All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time—namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

And, I realize I’ve quoted Murray prolly 10+ times in these Notes, but gotta do it again: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!””

And, Tal Ben-Shahar fromHappier (see Notes):“In 1879 Thomas Edison announced that he would publicly display the electric lightbulb by December 31, even though all his experiments had, to that point, failed. He threw his knapsack over the brick wall—the numerous challenges that he still faced—and on the last day of that year, there was light. In 1962, when John F. Kennedy declared to the world that the United States was going to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade, some of the metals necessary for the journey had not yet been invented, and the technology required for completing the journey was not available. But he threw his—and NASA’s—knapsack over the brick wall. Though making a verbal commitment, no matter how bold and how inspiring, does not ensure that we reach our destination, it does enhance the likelihood of success.”

So, there ya go. If we wanna experience some unexpected magic, we’ve gotta throw our knapsacks over the wall, commit and let the invisible hands guide us on our quest! :)

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’ve gotta let it go and become present to the joy of this moment and the thrill of our glorious future.

Throughout these Notes, we’ve talked about the absurdity of going to a REALLY bad movie AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN or about trying to drive looking in the rearview mirror. Just doesn’t work.

Let’s reflect on that wisdom again and see if we can’t shake the habit!

First, how about some old school Vernon Howard wisdom from his classic The Power of Your Supermind (see Notes)? He says: “A chief cause of unhappiness is what I call mental movies. Mental movies are a misuse of the imagination. You know how it goes. You have a painful experience with someone, then run it over and over in your mind. You visualize what you said, what he did, how you both felt. As awful as it is, you feel compelled to repeat the film day and night. It is as if you were locked inside a theatre playing a horrible movie.”

Now imagine driving somewhere while staring in your rearview mirror. Not gonna work, eh? Same with our lives. We’ve GOTTA let go of the past and quit replaying the scenes we regret to open up to the possibilities of the moment.

(I’m repeating myself now, huh? It’s deliberate. :)

So, how about you: Are you replaying a scene in your head again and again and again? Now a good time to let it go?

“One-selved organisms.” Love that.

Becoming a “one-selved” organism is what it’s all about. We talk about it in our Notes on Big Mind Big Heart by Zen Master Genpo Roshi and in The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden and in The Dark Side of the Light Chasersand pretty much in every Note we do here.

Genpo Roshi walks us through a process called “Big Mind” that’s all about integrating the multitude of voices within us and says: “My understanding is that every aspect of the self, every voice, has its own innate wisdom; that if we would simply allow every voice to be heard, to be appreciated, and to be honored, we as human beings would live a much healthier, happier and joyful life; that by denying or suppressing any aspect we are creating a problem both for the self and for others.”

Nathaniel Branden’s second pillar of self-esteem is Self-Acceptance and he tells us that we need to make sure we don’t have an adversarial relationship with ourselves and that: “As a psychotherapist I see nothing does as much for an individual’s self-esteem as becoming aware of and accepting disowned parts of the self. The first steps of healing and growth are awareness and acceptance—consciousness and integration.”

And, Debbie Ford’sgreat book The Dark Side of the Light Chasersis all about mining the darkness of our consciousness to re-integrate the shadow elements and become fully alive/one-selved beings. She tells us: “We live under the pretense that in order for something to be divine it has to be perfect. We are mistaken. In fact, the exact opposite is true. To be divine is to be whole and to be whole is to be everything: the positive and the negative, the good and the bad, the holy and the devil. When we take the time to discover our shadow and its gifts we will understand what Jung meant by, ‘The gold is in the dark.’ Each of us needs to find that gold in order to reunite with our sacred self.”

So… how many “selves” are you at the moment? Let’s integrate them into one!

Gay and I are both huge fans of the classic Stoic philosophers: Epictetus (Gay loves him so much he even adapted his classic text for modern times, Marcus Aurelius (my personal favorite… how can you *not* love an emperor-philosopher?), and Seneca (a contemporary of Jesus who came up with the literary style known as the essay and was a rockin’ dood in his own right.

As Gay says, “The Stoic ideal was simple: live in harmony with the way things are. Let yourself resonate with your feelings and honor the feelings of others, then act from the open space beyond all your feelings. The original Stoics tell us: 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. In order to change things, you must first embrace them as they are.”

I highly recommend our Notes on Epictetus’ The Enchiridion, Aurelius’ Meditations, and Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic. For now, let’s look at some of their mojo, shall we?

Epictetus: “We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”

Aurelius: “Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.”

And Seneca: “As it is with a play, so it is with life—what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.”

There ya go. Stoics rock.

You’ll wanna check out the book for the full low-down on the “Five Required Lessons of the Journey”(it’s a *great* chapter) that’ll help us get tickled to infinity. For now, let’s check out the highlights:

1. 1. Feel All Your Feelings Deeply

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   “Always and in every moment, embrace what is real inside yourself and focus on what is real outside yourself.”

2. 2. Seek Your True Self

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   “Get your priorities straight. Focus first on who you are, then let your actions flow from this place of deep self-knowledge.”

3. 3. Let Go of the Uncontrollable

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   “The secret of happiness is knowing that there are some things you can control and some things you cannot.”

4. 4. We Are All Made of the Same Thing

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   “When we go deeply enough into who we are and who others are, we will find our organic connection with divinity and theirs.”

5. 5. Life Is Fullest When We’re Most True to Ourselves

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   “If you express what needs to be expressed within you, you will be happy and fulfilled. If you don’t, you won’t.”

I love this.

One of THE biggest things I’ve done for my consciousness is learning to quit seeing everything as an “either/or” equation and open into the possibility of “both/and” situations. (I thank Ken Wilber and his crew at the Integral Institute for their introduction to the concept and you can see my Notes on Ken for more.)

Isn’t it weird how often we think stuff needs to be either/or? Particularly with our “spirituality.” Either I’m spiritual or I’m an entrepreneur. Either I’m a monk or I’m wealthy. Either/or. Either/or. Either/or. Um, yah.

What about: My spirituality is expressed THROUGH my work and my wealth is a sign of my connection to the abundant flow of the universe?

How ‘bout you? You have any either/ors in your life you might be able to say YES, and… to? It’s a powerful move.

In terms of goal setting and flow, Tal Ben-Shahar (the Harvard positive psychology/Happier dood from above) talks about this in his great book. He brilliantly describes four different archetypes and how they approach life, saying this: “The rat racer’s illusion is that reaching some future destination will bring him lasting happiness; he does not recognize the significance of the journey. The hedonist’s illusion is that only the journey is important. The nihilist, having given up on both the destination and the journey, is disillusioned with life. The rat racer becomes a slave to the future; the hedonist, a slave to the moment; the nihilist, a slave to the past.

Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable. Happiness is not about making it to the peak of the mountain nor is it about climbing aimlessly around the mountain; happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak.”

How about you? Where you at? Rat racing? Hedonism? Nihilism? Happiness?

Here’s to happiness where we set goals AND go with the flow! :)

That is AWESOME.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Big Ideas from Jack Canfield’s great (!) book The Success Principles (see Notes). He tells us 99% is a bitch and 100% is a breeze (I LOVE that) and he also advises us that: “Successful people adhere to the “no exceptions rule” when it comes to their daily disciplines. Once you make a 100% commitment to something, there are no exceptions. It’s a done deal. Non-negotiable. Case closed! Over and out.”