Conscious living as a lifestyle
Enjoying common sensory input (receptive thought) from daily activities can become a way of life which nurtures all other thought processes, and gives the only good basis for good cognitive thought to follow. Too, it provides pleasure, a sense of existence, and power over one’s destiny.
“To be conscious of an act (conscious of something you are doing) doesn’t mean that you ‘think it through,’ but rather that you simply experience it,” said Dr. Vittoz. It was his view that applying conscious acts to living represented a decision to leave behind acts or actions accomplished as robots.
For example, you can take your shower and get ready in the morning while you’re thinking about something else, or you can decide to notice the sound of the water as it falls, or its temperature, or the smell of the soap you use, or the movements of your body as you wash.
Another example – you open a window. You can decide that it’s the gesture, the movement you want to notice: the sensation of the handle in your hand, the sound reaching your ears of the window as it opens, the movements of the muscles in your arms, the feeling of the air on your face and chest, all the sounds of the street on that particular morning. The window isn’t the important thing. Thanks to the window, though, you’re managing your attention. As a result, a sensation of mental calm will follow.
Living consciously is, first of all,
- something you decide to do;
then
- something you actually experience;
and finally,
- a produced result that you can verify.
When the intention to do something is followed by the decision to do it, and the action of actually doing the thing – when all three agree, people experience a sensation of oneness, of calm, of being alive. If these results are not present, we know that the act has not been felt or experienced. It has been, instead, “thought through.”
Any moment in time can be transformed into a Conscious Act : breathing, walking, speaking, eating, any simple moment of the day. In this way, any part of life can become a Vittoz exercise.
In living consciously and in the present moment with Conscious Acts, people learn to live in the present moment as a way of life.
Results of living in the present moment
Living in the present moment brings a sense of tranquility and security, and can improve the state of mind of persons with various kinds of nervous disorders. Neurotic persons stop constantly returning to the past. People with an obsessive bent live with more confidence and less doubt. Typically anxious folks live with a less exaggerated fear of the future.
In periods of particular stress where such folks again become unstable, a return to the practice of the Conscious Acts that had been most beneficial can stabilize the situation. It’s like riding a bicycle: You never forget. You can ride again anytime you want to. |
