Yesterday I posited the concept of Conscious and Unconscious Living - and that, in at least a number of situations, I seem to be going about life unconsciously. That said, what might Conscious Living look like?
Conscious Living: I have examples, which may define the concept.
Working out: When I work out with weights, I am very conscious of everything that I am doing. Why? Because the weights are heavy and the risk for injury is substantial if one is not paying attention. To that end, I am constantly paying attention: to the weight, how it is being lifted and how it is being placed when I am resting, and to my body - how do my muscles feel, do I feel anything untoward or starting to give? I am completely, utterly in the moment of what I am doing.
Iaijutsu training: When we are in training, one is constantly aware - not only of the kata being practiced but also of one's sword placement and body placement. One also has to be aware of one's fellow students, both to prevent injury and (as a more senior student) to observe to see if anything varies significantly. One also aware of the placement of one's training sword - not just out in front, but the entire movement of the sword around the body, to the back, to the side. In paired drills this becomes even more intense, especially at higher speeds: one pays attention to doing the technique correctly and paying attention to one's partner to preserve space and distance.
Now if you ask me to define the concept from examples, I would stumble a bit. What I would probably end on is that Conscious Living is the practice of being 100% engaged in the activity of the moment to the point that all other thoughts and activities fade from one's mind. One is focused on the activity at hand.
That requires a high level of concentration, of course. And that is something that modern society makes very hard to maintain.
Think about a simple example: Once upon a time, purchasing something meant walking or driving to a location, selecting the item, purchasing the item, and then driving back home. Now, I can do everything with the click of a button from home. The activity is no longer a process in which I have to fully engage; instead, I can merely look, click and continue to do a second activity at the same time.
Or entertainment. Once upon a time I had to plan a schedule around watching a show or (even more exciting) travel to a movie theater. Now, I can watch whatever I want when I want to watch it - and do something else while I am watching it. There is no focus, no engagement - just me deciding and then un-deciding to do something.
I compare this with my training for the last two years in Japan. In this case, I have to travel a long way - and effectively cut myself off from the outside world. While I am there, we are on a schedule: we wake up at a certain time, train at certain times, eat at certain times, shower at a certain time - and all collapse in bed at certain time (that, at least is "unscheduled"). Part of what makes the experience possible is being completely engage in what I am doing - but part of it as well is that the conscious choices I would have to make are pulled from me. I have consciously chosen to move certain decisions to the side - and thus, I can live consciously in the rest of the moment.
But if Living Consciously is desirable (and I would argue it is) but hard to do in modern society (I would argue it also is), then how do we accomplish it?
I'm going to venture an opinion that a lot of it is habit. I agree that it takes mental energy to pay attention to what one is doing, and sometimes it's easier to simply run on automatic pilot. People are very distracted nowadays, which doesn't help. We're constantly bombarded with information (most of it in the form of advertising) and it's easy to reach information overload.
ReplyDeleteMuch is made of attention deficit disorders, and I can't help but wonder if some of that is because kids have been trained to have short attention spans. I call it "sesame street syndrome," where they spend hours being shown short, fast-paced bits of pictures and topics. I'm not downplaying true neurochemical problems, but how can that kind of "training" not become mental habit? The same could be said of any mental repetition: video games, formulaic TV programs and movies, staring at social media posts for hours and hours.
To accomplish living consciously, I'd say it starts with an awareness of the problem and a desire to be different. Disengaging in activities that foster unconscious responses and habits. Engage in activities that require active concentration and creativity. Habits aren't easy to change but it can be done.
(Ha ha, listen to me, acting like I know what I'm talking about)
Leigh, I think you may be on to something. We are terribly distracted as a society - as I sit here, my oldest in the kitchen listening to music while she reviews Economics. I cannot work with music in the background - I either listen to the music or it becomes a distraction.
ReplyDeleteHabits, or training - both are deadly. We have trained ourselves to think in shorter and shorter blocks: once upon a time it was the length of novels, then movies, then radio shows, then TV shows, then "TED" talks, then 140 characters, then memes. And once you train yourselves in the shortest time possible, anything else seems like a huge effort and almost instantly boring.
You hit on the same thing Glen hit on: awareness of the issue and desire to change. The issue is that we may be so distracted we may never realize there is an actual issue - until it is too late.
I often listen to Gospel music while doing dishes or cooking. Sometimes when I am working outside also.
ReplyDeleteAnd whenever hubby is watching something I don't care for, I will put on my headsets and listen to either Cajun music (I don't know French, but I like the music!), or Gospel music.
I think Conscious Living could also be put in simple terms - What you're interested in. Or perhaps self-preservation; but it could be carried to fishing, cooking, and other things I can't point to right now.
Hope you can have a good weekend! Supposed to be annoyingly hot here. Weather that I would as soon not be Consciously Living. ;-)
Linda, I do not think you are wrong. Defined another way, it is simply being "in" whatever you are doing - fishing or music or whatever, instead of being torn apart by many thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHot and muggy here as well. Summer is here!