Conscious Living: 9 Positive Life-Changing Tips

Everyone lives life with his specific perspective. Some people live life actively and consciously, while others prefer to go with the herd and take it easy.

Only this simple aspect divides most people into two categories, and the long-term effects of such living are totally remarkable.

The first group of individuals go against the tide of normality. They don’t accept things at face value. They question life and its challenges and try to make the most of their limited time here.

While the other group embraces complacency. They don’t think about what’s happening around them. They unconsciously conform to the ongoing happenings and do not put in much effort, thus leaving their lives on autopilot.

This difference in conscious living separates achievers from people who are just passersby.

To achieve this level of awareness, we will help you understand the key qualities and strategies you can adopt to navigate your life with a true purpose.

What is Meant by Conscious Living?

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you’ll call it fate.

Carl Jung

Conscious living is a mindset. It is a mindset that enables us to become aware of our actions, manners, emotions, words, and behavior with other people.

It helps us analyze everything around us, use the available resources to aid our purpose and act to change the direction of our life.

This is how we can choose a life that helps us realize a life we think about at our subconscious or unconscious level.

Are you living a conscious or passive life?

It is very easy to succumb to the battles that life offers us and while away in the constant struggle to just get by. This is what happens when you lead a passive life.

Passivity means letting the world have its way keeping you in a constant struggle to get a strong grip on your situation.

You let all the tides of unforeseen circumstances keep you in a loop without having a proper direction.

This only happens when you aren’t aware of what impact your actions have. The only way to solve this is to take control of your life and act in your best interest.

How to activate your unconscious mind to achieve mastery over your life?

What’s important is that we direct our energies to realize what we want out of this world. It can be any of the things we desire, provided we work and take conscious steps to achieve them.

Many studies have been done to explore the mystery of the subconscious mind. In fact, the unconscious mind has been found to follow the real active mind and is not as complex and uncontrollable as commonly thought to be.

Most of our daily actions occur seamlessly as we develop these reflexes with time. The same is the process with our thinking and habits.

However, to change them, we need to be aware of them. Through conscious effort, we can mold our subconscious mind, influence it and overcome the normal adopted behavior.

The reality is that conscious living encompasses almost every sphere of life. It means clearing your head from the fog of uncertainty and deciding to live a life of satisfaction rather than desperation.

How do you know that you are living consciously right now?

It can be a tough call to know if you are practicing conscious living or not. For that purpose, you need to ask yourself the following sincere questions that can make you aware of your situation.

• Am I doing the things I love, or am I forced in my current situation?

• Do I wish to be more around my loved ones?

• Do I always look forward to the next paycheck and not know where my money goes?

• Am I idling away my time instead of focusing on tasks that are more important to me?

• Am I overweight and not eating healthy the way I should be?

• Is my job my passion, or am I just doing it to meet my ends meet?

• Are my ideas and opinions my own, or do others and social media heavily influence them?

• Do I have a well-thought-out plan for my life, or am I just surviving one day after another?

If your answers are more on the positive side, then you are living a proactive life and possess the virtues of conscious living.

How Can Conscious Living help you?

If most of your answers are no, then don’t worry. I will tell you the strategies you require to re-orient yourself and take concrete steps to get ahead.

You can change your way of living by following some tips. But first, why even bother adopting conscious living? Here’s what you would get by this:

• You will be easily able comprehend your bodily, mental, and emotional processes.

• You could outline your life goals and drive yourself toward success.

• You will be better able to make informed and thoughtful decisions.

• You could hold yourself accountable for your deeds and understand their consequences.

• You will adopt a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, i.e., a growth mindset.

• Improve your emotional as well as social intelligence.

• Set yourself on a track of gradual and consistent self-improvement.

• Develop a positive and optimistic outlook regarding most situations.

• Better weigh the importance of individual matters and give due attention to each.

• Attain a realistic and logical perception of reality and your own thoughts.

• Develop punctuality and time consciousness.

Even though developing these traits might seem an uphill task, everyone has to go through a process to attain them.

Applying the principles of conscious living each and every day can help you make these qualities second nature to you. And in the long run, you’ll notice a significant shift in your life.

From living oblivious and ignorant of your purpose, you will start to find your true calling. Personal and professional success will be close, and you will start to reap the benefits of a satisfying life.

Key Tips For More Conscious Living

If you have reached this far on this article, then congratulations! Reading all information up till now has motivated you enough to make a conscious change in your life.

Following these key tips and strategies will help develop a positive change in your life and take you to a higher level of awareness.

1. Practicing Self-Awareness

This is your first step to being more conscious about your life. Self-awareness means being aware of your internal emotional state at any point of the day.

Whether you are feeling low or happy, you can tell what is causing such a feeling in your mood. Only when you are highly aware of your internal situation can you make wise decisions and positively alter the outcomes.

Many studies have found that individuals who practice self-realization and awareness are in better touch with their ideals and adopt actions that show a concern for the rights, feelings, and welfare of other people.

2. Exploring Your Identity

To truly be self-aware, you need to be conscious of who you are as a person. This includes knowing what your values and morals are, what kind of lifestyle you prefer and what you desire out of life. The only thing holding you back from exploring these topics in the past would be the lack of curiosity.

There are plenty of ways that you can be misled by the opinion of others or maybe dwindled by shiny object syndrome.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop shutting down valuable information and genuine advice from others. But rather, you should filter and see what suits your circumstances better.

You can only live consciously when you can differentiate between right and wrong. As the accumulation of these little decisions and actions navigate the path in your life.

3. Setting Clear Goals and Dreams:

Once you plan to adopt conscious living, setting goals for yourself becomes your utmost priority. You should outline personal and professional targets you want to achieve and make a definite plan to get them.

For that purpose, your goals should be SMART. SMART is mnemonic for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

By using this method of goal setting, you can gradually work towards success even if you don’t have ample resources or the proper skill set to begin with

Another approach can be to place unrealistic goals in front of yourself. The underlying principle of such goal setting is based on the popular quote.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

Though it’s nice to set high expectations, deliberate thinking, and conscious efforts can help you reach the moon if you give your best.

But personally, I recommend using this approach when you have developed some confidence while practicing self-awareness and are ready to take this on without any hesitation.

4. Doing a Thorough Time Audit

If you take a piece of paper and jot down your time for each action you do throughout the day, you get a clear idea of where your energies are being spent.

This is the most simple yet important thing you can do to track your life as it happens.

You will be better conscious of your time once you do this and can direct your focus toward things that really matter. Be it your relationships, side hustles or personal care; all will be managed well if you plan your time well.

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is; What are we busy about?”

Henry David Thoreau

5. Practicing Mindfulness

Mindfulness means observing your thoughts and inner emotions through an objective lens. It means to be fully present in your surroundings and not be overwhelmed by the happenings around you.

Take some time off from your regular routine, notice how you feel, and reflect on your inner state. By doing this regularly, you will be better able to judge your actions and take thoughtful decisions even on the smallest of matters.

Studies have found that brief but daily sessions of meditation help decrease anxiety and improve consciousness and memory.

There are plenty of ways you can exercise mindfulness. Be it meditation, journaling or deep breathing, just make sure to calm your mind and thoughts and learn to be present in the moment.

6. Being Thankful and Developing a Positive Mindset

Think of all the things you appreciate and the many blessings you have. Be more appreciative and thoughtful about what you have achieved till now, and think of ways to make more of your capabilities.

Developing a positive and optimistic attitude toward life motivates us to change our inner and outer selves. By this, we mean learning new habits and skills that make us more adept at facing the challenges of life.

Research shows that individuals who practiced conscious living changed their thoughts to positive ones had reduced anxiety and worry

Only with this positive or growth mindset can you live consciously.

7. Being Money Conscious

Money has an important value in the lives of everybody. And no one can deny its impact on the level of satisfaction of a person.

However, many people still need to practice the habit of conscious spending. Managing your finances and establishing a budget is easier said than done. 

To put your financial plans into action, you have to take deliberate actions and set a system to execute them.

For this purpose, you have to think about each time you purchase a thing and weigh its value in your life, no matter how small it may be.

Only then can you develop a consciousness regarding your finances. 

So next time you buy a coffee from Starbucks, think actively about whether you can do without it or not. Question yourself whether you would like to waste your hard-earned money over trivial things.

When you develop such a mentality, you slowly pave your way toward financial literacy and start living more consciously.

8. Being Responsible for Your Actions

It is important to be conscious about our dealings and decisions as our small actions have a huge impact in the long term. This phenomenon is commonly known as the butterfly effect.

Our trivial actions compound over time and result in inevitable larger consequences. So we must think, act and behave rationally all the time. When you strive to improve yourself by 1% each day, over the course of one year, you’ll see a remarkable change in your personality and self-consciousness.

9. Practicing Self-Care

You need a sound and well-balanced body to be fully aware of yourself and your surroundings. You need to be in your best shape to connect with your true self.

So, you must prioritize your physical and mental health and practicing self-care is not as hard as it sounds. It involves making simple tweaks to your routine that result in better health. You can do this by:

• Replacing your meals with better and healthier alternatives.

• Meditating for 30-40 minutes each day. You can easily do this in your free time, at home or in your office.

• Getting proper sleep.

• Enjoying and being mindful when doing chores and mundane tasks like cooking, cleaning, or washing the dishes

• Making exercise a daily part of your routine. You can start with as little as 30 minutes of casual walking each day.

Final Words:

If you have read all the steps mentioned earlier for conscious living, you will have no problem starting your life on a fresh note. Putting these steps into action only requires sincere and intentional effort from your side. Good things take time, and developing such a mindset is a slow and steady process. So, take a deep breath and work on a single tip at a time. And in the long run, you’ll see how far you have come!