Being Conscious

     As my blog is about creating our reality and or how we affect our reality, I found it may be helpful to talk about consciousness and it's meaning. Because the research I am doing explains that to be able to create our reality we have to be present, or conscious. So "conscious", as defined by Dictionary.com, is "the state of being conscious; awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc." So my understanding of this definition is, not just knowing what's going on around you, but feeling it, being aware of every sound and smell, knowing how your life is going and thinking about how you are affecting others. By being so aware that we can make decisions quicker by feeling what we want, feeling what we need, and being able to name the emotion and where it's hitting us the most. "I'm scared" ok, where do you feel it? Is your heart skipping? Or your mind racing? Are you twitching or your belly nauseous? Feel your body and know what it's doing.

 In my research I found a couple books on my topic, although while I say "conscious", other authors call it "mindful" or "mindfulness". I found a book called The Miracle of Mindfulness, it's by a man named Thich Nhat Hanh, a man who published letters from a Vietnamese man named Brother Quang in 1974. In this book Quang talks about meditating and owning our feelings and reactions, and being awake or fully aware of ourselves and our minds. A paragraph stuck out to me, he is talking about a guard we create for ourselves, he refers to it as "the monkey's shadow". He calls it this because he refers to us as the monkey and our minds as the shadow, if we move it moves it cannot be detached (well, unless we die) but it's always there watching over us. Quang says, 

"While practicing mindfulness, don't be dominated by the distinction between good and evil, thus creating a battle within oneself. Whenever a wholesome thought arises, acknowledge it: 'A wholesome thought has just arisen." And if an unwholesome thought arises, acknowledge it as well: 'an unwholesome thought has just arisen." Don't dwell on it or try to get rid of it, however much you don't like it. To acknowledge it is enough. If you have departed, then you must know that you have departed, and if you are still there, know that you are still there. Once you have reached such an awareness, there will be nothing you need to fear anymore." (Hanh 39)

So be conscious by being aware of your thoughts, not by constantly thinking about them, just being aware that they are there. Once you are aware of  your thoughts there isn't anything you need to be afraid of because it's your thoughts that hold you back when you replay them in your head. So it's enough to just be aware of them.

I also found another book, You Are Here, by Thich Nhat Hanh, although by the same author, this book focuses more on Hanh's own journey and what he has learned from his own searching, instead of sharing letters from another man. My favorite quote from this book is talking about how a man who is a garbage man is still doing something wonderful. He learns how to use garbage and compost it and that compost turns into a beautiful flower. Hanh explains 

"The same thing is true of your happiness and your sorrow. Sorrow, fear, and depression are all a kind of garbage. These bits  of garbage are part of real life, and we must look deeply into their nature. You can practice in order to turn these bits of garbage into flowers. It is not only your love that is organic; your hate is, too. So you should not throw anything out. All you have to do is learn how to transform your garbage into flowers."

So again, by being mindful, or conscious, we can take our "garbage" and turn them into flowers. We choose by being conscious about our feelings. 

So to sum up this post, if we can learn to be conscious, or mindful, we can do great things. If we can learn to be aware of our own feelings and emotions and own them, we can create flowers and turn all the negative to good. It's all up to us to be conscious enough to let it happen.