“Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Addiction depends on being non-conscious. I don’t mean passed out unconscious, I mean not being aware of, or not making conscious choices.
We think the same things over and over. We do the same things mindlessly. We do what is familiar without a conscious thought to the consequences. But if you want to see the consequences, look at the overall average level of joy, fulfillment, calm and creativity you experience in your life. These are some of the ways to get a clear measure how conscious or unconscious you are.
We are designed to feel supported in life, not burdened by it. But we have to be conscious about what we’re doing to either add to our support or add to our burden. Bad stuff happens, but consciousness allows us to be resilient and find ways to deal with and sometimes even benefit from those bad things.
For example, breaking your back and becoming paralyzed would lead some people to hopeless despair – Christopher Reeve saw it as an opportunity to make a difference. Being born armless and legless could lead some to believe they are worthless – Nick Vujicic used it to become an internationally known inspirational speaker, and Kyle Maynard used it as a challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Blindness could lead one to think they could never succeed in their dream career – home cook Christine Ha became a chef at a 5-star restaurant without seeing anything she prepared. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
These people, and others who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds, became very conscious of both their limitations and theirs strengths, and used the latter to overcome the former.
To have more say in our destiny, we need to be more conscious in all six of the steps Gandhi mentioned that lead to it.
CONSCIOUSNESS EXERCISE
Here’s a simple exercise that will help you be conscious and present in this very moment. Take a morsel of your favorite healthy food and follow these steps, paying close attention to your senses and emotions as described in the exercise. It will probably take about 10-15 minutes, but with practice, you can gain this level of consciousness in seconds.
(NOTE: for this exercise, please avoid extraneous stimuli – phones, computers, TV, books, newspapers, etc. Just focus on the piece of food and the process.)
SENSES
• Sight: Look at the morsel on the plate. Notice the shape. Outline it with your eyes. Notice the irregularities of its shape. Notice the color of the morsel, and any variations in the color. Notice the shadowing due to the lighting of the room. Notice how the texture appears on the morsel (is it smooth, rough?). Turn the plate so you can see the morsel from different perspectives.
Describe what you see:
• Touch: Now pick up the morsel with your fingers and close your eyes. Notice its weight. Notice the texture as you touch it – does it feel like you imagined it would when you saw it on the plate?
Describe how it feels to the touch:
• Smell: Bring the morsel close to your nose and close your eyes. Breathe in the aroma through your nostrils. Is the aroma pleasant? Can you discern the scents of the different ingredients?
Describe the aroma and as many ingredients as you can identify:
• Taste: Taste the morsel with just the tip of your tongue. Does it have a flavor? Now taste it on the center of your tongue. Has the flavor changed in any way? Finally taste it on the back of your tongue. Again, any change in flavor? (Each part of the tongue tastes different flavors and discerns sweet from savory from seasoned.)
Describe your experience and any differences you noticed:
• Hearing: Take a bite of the morsel and chew it, again with your eyes closed. Notice the sounds you hear, and notice whether you can distinguish what sounds are made by the gnashing of your teeth, the lubricating of your saliva, the pull of your muscles near your ears. Notice the sound when you swallow what you have chewed. Also notice the sounds around you – are there birds or traffic outside? Is someone moving around near you? What do you hear?
Describe the sounds and the experience of listening intently:
• Body: Lots of other things are happening in your body while you eat. How many can you notice? For example, did your stomach begin to “growl” or “churn” as you were looking at the morsel on the plate? At what point did you begin to salivate? What was your breathing like during the exercise – were you breathing throughout (hint: certainly not as you swallowed or you’d have choked!).
Describe the different experiences you noticed during this experience:
EMOTIONS
• Feeling: As you ate the morsel, did you notice any emotional feelings? Were you happy, content, irritable, or other feeling? (Whether you did or did not is equally fine – there is no right or wrong emotional response.) Was the experience pleasant, unpleasant?
Describe your emotional feelings or lack of them:
• Energy: Did you notice any difference in your energy level at any point during the exercise? Is your energy level any different after the exercise than before starting?
Describe any changes you noticed in your energy:
• Effects: Notice whether you had any other awarenesses during this exercise, for example:
Memories: Did the food, or any part of the exercise remind you of something or someone, either past or present?
Thoughts: Did your mind drift? If so, what did you think about?
Triggers: Did any part of the exercise trigger any positive or negative emotional reactions? If so, what was the trigger and what did it trigger? How did it influence your experience? Can you let it go?
Satisfaction: What was your overall level of satisfaction with the exercise, the food and your awareness?
Did the experience lead you to be aware of anything else?
If there are any questions you could not answer, that’s fine. You may be more or less aware of some of your processes, or you may simply have not experienced some of these effects. Try again at another time, and be conscious of that experience.
This exercise can be done in many ways, with many different objects, events, circumstances or people. You won’t always be able to use every sense, but you can become more present and aware of your experiences, surroundings and the impact they have on your body, mind, mood and emotions. Whether in a business meeting, on a date, playing with your kids, or whatever you are doing, practice being as conscious and present to the experience as you can. It is a great way to feel more vibrant and alive in everything you do!