Guiding Principles of Conscious Living

Here are some of the foundation ideas on which anyone’s journey of conscious living is based. If you open the pages of Epictetus (and I highly recommend that you do), you will see themes similar to the ones we address in this book: self-esteem, relationship, the conscious design of a meaningful life, emotional literacy, and others.
 

Guiding Premise One

Authenticity is essential. A truthful life is both the outcome of the journey and the means of getting there. A successful life is an authentic life. Happiness and creativity rest on a foundation of transparency to yourself and others. Knowing your own heart and speaking clearly to others keep you on the path.

Guiding Premise Two

Things that can be felt and seen – peace of mind, happiness, and the humane treatment of others – are higher-priority goals than religious concepts such as original sin or beliefs about life after death. The journey of conscious living is based on getting to a deeper level in yourself than beliefs and opinions, in order to experience the essence of what unifies people, not divides them.

Guiding Premise Three

Conscious living depends on finding out what goals are important to you, and moving toward those goals at a pace that allows you to feel vibrant.

Guiding Premise Four

The journey of conscious living begins when you take full responsibility for your life, and slams to a halt when you avoid responsibility.

Guiding Premise Five

Happiness, success, and sound relationships depend on letting go of controlling things that are beyond your control. Examples of things you cannot control are the feelings of others, the future, the past, and whether or not other people like you.

Guiding Premise Six

Spiritual growth comes through a deep embrace of reality, not through flights of arguable fantasy. Transcendence is best accomplished by thoroughly acknowledging – rather than ignoring or denying – such human realities as emotions, sexuality, and conflict.

Guiding Premise Seven

It is possible to make rapid shifts in consciousness – from scarcity to abundance, from defensiveness to openness, from fear to love – and these shifts in consciousness will change the outer circumstances of your life.

Guiding Premise Eight

Peace of mind comes ultimately from making your deepest creative contribution to the community around you. When you make your full contribution, you feel happy, fulfilled, and at ease. When you don’t, you don’t.

Guiding Premise Nine

Commitment to certain key values – honesty, responsibility, gratitude – not only gives you an inner flow of harmony but also rewards you with an authentic form of power that can be recognized by others. Authentic power comes from authenticity; false power comes from control and ego-aggrandizement.

Guiding Premise Ten

You can choose to become the source of attitudes such as gratitude and responsibility (rather than waiting for the events of life to inspire you to adopt them). If you wait for events to trigger those attitudes, you remain locked in a consumer rather than a producer mode, and keep yourself trapped in scarcity.

Going Forth

None of us invents the journey of conscious living; we are heir to it. For thousands of years, people from east to west have been looking to the heavens and looking into their own hearts, wondering about the same fundamental questions:

•     Who am I?

•     Where do I want to go?

•     What is my plan for getting there?

•     How can I give and receive love to my full potential?

•     What is my creative gift and how can I express it?