Regaining Consciousness
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Transcript of Regaining Consciousness
Regaining Consciousnessby Sam Spurlin
Dedication
2
Dedication
Regaining Consciousnesswww.thesimplerlife.net
This e-book is dedicated to all the readers of The Simpler Life.
You are the reason that I sit in front of my computer day after day and share my thoughts.
You are the reason I decided to become more conscious of the way I live my life.
Thank you for your inspiration, dedication, and support.
DedicationDedication
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Introduction 5 Chapter One: Learning How to Find Your Values 11 Chapter Two: Taking Control of Your Health 18 Becoming Conscious Of Your Choices 20 Becoming Conscious of How Much You’re Eating 26 Conscious Fitness 29
Chapter Three: Doing Work That Matters 35 Focusing on the Positives 37 Re-framing Negatives 39 Forming an Exit Plan 42
Chapter Four: Master Your Mind with Conscious Thinking 52 Challenging Assumptions and Biases 54 Challenging (and Changing) Perspective 55 Acknowledging Ignorance 58 Removing External Decision-Makers 62
ContentsContents
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Chapter Five: Developing and Nurturing Conscious Relationships 68 Assessing Your Relationships 69 Taking Responsibility for Your Own Attitude 71 Improving and Developing Important Relationships 72 Killing the Vampires In Your Life 73
Chapter Six: The Tools of Consciousness: Focus and Discipline 80 What is Focus, why is it important, and how can it be developed? 81 What is Discipline, why is it important, and how can it be developed? 85
Chapter Seven: Final Thoughts on Living a Conscious Life 96
Resources, Thanks and Credits 98
ContentsContents
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IntroductionIntroductionYou’re living, breathing and obviously coherent enough to read this e-book. At the most
superficial level, I suppose you’re conscious. That’s a good start. But are you interested in
living life only at the most superficial level?
There is a deeper and much more nuanced definition of consciousness that provides the
basis of all the work I have been doing this past year. Consciousness is so much more
than being a proverbial bump-on-a-log. Bumps on logs don’t do anything and they aren’t
particularly remarkable. I’ve been figuring out how to liberate myself from the log for the
past year and I want to share what I’ve learned.
True consciousness is being aware of the external influences on your behavior.
It’s recognizing when your actions are regulated by forces outside your control and
learning how to move the root of your action within yourself. Consciousness is what
makes you an interesting and passionate human being instead of a lifeless robot. Robots
respond to their environment and execute the instructions they have been programmed
with.
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A conscious human being is influenced by the outside world as well, but does not let
this random stimuli exclusively spur their actions. Decisions, actions, and attitudes are
regulated by their values instead.
Over the past year I’ve become aware of how often I found myself responding to
stimuli—being a robot, instead of consciously living. It has been my goal to break out of
this mindless cycle and give my life mouth-to-mouth CPR or the shock of a defibrillator
to wake myself from my automaton tendencies.
So far I’ve been speaking in generalities without giving concrete examples of what I
mean. Let me rectify that as I demonstrate concrete examples of my own, and society’s,
loss of consciousness.
1. In the United States, political apathy is an epidemic. Most people know nothing
about what is going on in the government, how the government works, what issues
are currently important and what they can do to influence the course of the country.
The reasons behind this lack of caring are numerous and many of them are rooted in
righteous anger, but the result is the same. Instead of having a sense of ownership or
control over the governmental decisions that affect them on a daily basis, people resign
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themselves to unawareness and disinterest. Government decisions affect nearly every
aspect of your life and yet, most people couldn’t care. This drifting apathy is a lack of
consciousness.
2. The obesity epidemic is another illustration of how lack of consciousness is
destroying many people. Instead of taking responsibility for their decisions, many
people let the lure of fast food and unhealthy food choices overtake their lives. A truly
conscious person would be aware of the relationship between the food they put into
their body and the way they feel. Making conscious decisions about what to eat and
how to live are constantly overridden by convenience, by short term pleasure, and
overbearing advertisement.
3. In my own life, my lack of consciousness mired me in a funk of unemployment and
unproductiveness. After college I moved home with my parents and began to look for a
teaching job.
I couldn’t find a full-time job, so I continued to live at home while substitute teaching.
The money wasn’t much and the job satisfaction was non-existent, but I didn’t
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do much to change my situation. I started my blog, The Simpler Life, during this
time but I did not devote to it the type of attention it needed to truly grow. Finally,
I regained consciousness long enough to find a cheap
apartment and move out on my own, even though I still
didn’t have a full-time job. That was several months ago and
even though you could technically still call me unemployed,
I’m not homeless. In fact, I’m loving my austere and Spartan
apartment more than I ever could have imagined. Becoming
conscious of how my environment affected my mood and
productive output allowed me to make changes that enriched
my life beyond measure.
Lack of consciousness is a malady that spans across every
aspect of human life. It affects your decision making, your
mental and physical health, your outlook on life, your
relationships—consciousness rules all.
In this e-book, I’m going to address some of the most
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important parts of life that require a healthy level of consciousness.
As I said before, consciousness is the overriding principle to every area of life. Because
it’s so all encompassing, I could easily spend months trying to address every last piece of
relevant information. Instead, I’m going to focus on a few of the most important areas.
Improved consciousness in these areas will give the largest return on investment:
1. Conscious Health
2. Conscious Work
3. Conscious Thinking4. Conscious Relationships
The good news is that becoming conscious is something that you can learn and practice. It’s a matter of articulating your values, practicing constantly, and
developing the abilities of focus and discipline.
I’ve experienced incredible growth in my own life by doing the very things I write about
in this book. It has allowed me to move into my own apartment despite not having a
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steady job, make enough money from writing online to live comfortably, and to grow in
ways that I never could have imagined. Learning how to become the master of my own
attitude, feelings, moods, and outlook on life is the bedrock on which the rest of my life is
built.
While I have been practicing all of this for a long time, I am by no means an expert.
Instead of viewing me as a guru, I would prefer if you envision me as a traveling partner
who left a couple weeks ahead of you. I’ve gone ahead and scouted out the best places to
stay, the tastiest restaurants, and the coolest things to see. By scouting the way, I hope
to guide you in the most efficient way possible. You might disagree with my choice in
restaurants, or you might think that one hotel is a little bit campy, but I promise not to
lead you into any shady neighborhoods.
Pinky swear.
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You can’t leave for this journey until your bags have been packed with everything you
need. Some of it you’ll pick up along the way, but there are some tools that you should
never leave home without.
Your consciousness journey can’t begin until you’ve clarified your values.
The main cause of unconscious living is an unawareness in what you truly believe in.
When you’re floating through life on auto-pilot, your decisions are made by external
factors. Your anger is stoked by that inconsiderate waiter. Your eating habits are dictated
by the advertisements you see. The situations and reasons change, but the result is the
same, not having control over your life.
Instead of allowing these external factors to dominate, your values become your new
guideposts. As such, it is impossible to live a life of consciousness without first knowing
your values. You might value Freedom and so you make decisions and act in ways to
Learning How to1. Learning How to Find Your Values
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bring about that value in yourself and others. Personally, one of my most important
values is Growth. Whenever I can, I try to do things that will further this in my life.
Disappointments, unfamiliar situations, and new people all become opportunities for
growth instead of sadness, consternation, or apprehension.
You probably already have a good idea of what some of your values are. Even if you’ve
never articulated them before, nobody is devoid of values. The point of this chapter is to
take some time to truly clarify what they are and what they mean in your life.
Values are the ideas or concepts that guide your life. They are what dictate the decisions
you make and how you act. You already have values, but they have probably become
buried under layers of garbage.
Incessant advertisement, negative peer pressure, social pressures of conformity, and a
culture of excess all pound against and smother the values that want to reach the surface.
Living consciously is about brushing off the refuse and bringing your values up to the level at which they can impact how you live.
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To begin, start listing everything that you care about. What do you get excited for?
What do you enjoy doing or thinking about? What, or who, do you live your life for? To
get you started, here are a few of the words that came to mind in my own life: Growth,
Family, Teaching, Learning, Coaching, Simplicity, Focus, Personal Fitness, Challenge,
Integrity, Loyalty, Dedication, Discipline, Perseverance and Honesty. Keep going and add
as many as you can possibly think of.
Now that you have a list of ideas that symbolize and define your life, it’s time to begin
clarifying the picture.
While you have many values, only a couple permeate almost every aspect of your life.
These top level values are what you’re after. The values that fill in the mid and lower
levels of your life are still important, but they tend to be more malleable and transitory.
Life situations and experiences might change your lower level values, but most likely your
top 3 or 4 will never change. Your goal is to decide what those 3 or 4 everlasting and all
encompassing values are.
Take your long list of values and begin crossing out the ones you don’t feel a strong
dedication to. Maybe you think Political Activism is important, but not that important.
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Chances are it’s not one of your top 3 or 4. Right now, pare
your list down to the top 7 or 8 values that you feel strong
connections to. These are the values that you get excited about
when you see the words on paper. These are the values that the
Ideal You would adhere to unwaveringly.
Here are my top 7 in no particular order: Growth, Challenge,
Integrity, Family, Teaching, Coaching, and Simplicity.
Now, it’s time for the hard part. You want to narrow your list of
values down to the very top 3 or 4. These are the cream of the
crop, the best of the best. These are the ones that cause you the
most discomfort if you violate them.
It can be tough to eliminate at this point. Just remember that
if you eliminate a value from your final tier, it doesn’t mean
you think it’s not important. It just means that there are other
things that are more important.
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Human beings are complex and can’t be clearly defined by any set number of values.
That’s not what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get a clear picture of what your
underlying motivations are.
To help you pick your final tier of values, start writing about each of your 7-8 values.
Clarify what the value means to you by writing a couple paragraphs about each one. You
will find that some of them are incredibly easy to write about. You’ll probably crank
out two or three paragraphs in no time and still have more to say. Others will be more
difficult to write about. If you’re having trouble articulating what a particular value
means, chances are it’s not one of your most important ones. Your top values will be the
ones that seem most natural to write or talk about (if you’re not much of a writer, try
talking about each of your values to a trusted friend or significant other).
Now you’ve got your list of 3-4 top values. These are the guideposts that your future
decisions are made around. To further clarify what a life dominated by your values looks
like, I suggest doing one more exercise.
In this exercise you’re going to envision what your life would be like if you lived each of
these values perfectly. What would you be like?
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What would you do for a living? How would you treat others? What would your most
important relationships look like? What would you do during your free time? In as much
detail as possible, describe what this would be like. Use lots of adjectives and don’t be
afraid to be very specific. The goal is to create as clear of a picture as possible.
This is what you’re striving for.
This is what conscious living looks like.
You’ve got your list and you’ve got your visualization. The key is to
not let them fade into distant memory.
You want to be constantly reminded about what these top values
are. You want to be drilled with them as much as possible. Make a screensaver for
your computer that has your three values floating around, make a computer wallpaper
featuring your values, type up your values and tape it above your computer, write out
your values with magnetic refrigerator letters—do whatever it takes to keep these three
concepts in front of your eyes and in your mind as much as possible.
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My goal is to help you remove the roadblocks that keep you from living a conscious life
and your values are what swoop in to fill that void.
Don’t forget your toiletries and an extra pair of underwear before you leave for your
guided tour of increasing your consciousness.