Book 190 - A Year of Magical Learning (2 of 2)

Reflection Title: Let it Go! (Conscious Living vs. Conscious Doing)

Book – Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Your Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Part 2 of 2)

Book Description:

In his follow-up to Full Catastrophe Living--a book in which he presented basic meditation techniques as a way of reducing stress and healing from illness--here Jon Kabat-Zinn goes much more deeply into the practice of meditation for its own sake. To Kabat-Zinn, meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life. In brief, rather poetic chapters, he describes different meditative practices and what they can do for the practitioner. The idea that meditation is "spiritual" is often confusing to people, Kabat-Zinn writes; he prefers to think of it as what you might call a workout for your consciousness. This book makes learning meditation remarkably easy (although practicing it is not). But it also makes it seem infinitely appealing.

Reflection:

I’ve spent the past 2 years in what I’ll refer to as “Conscious Doing”.

Conscious Doing is the art of living your values in as much as you can with each day you have on this Earth. My conscious and I have spent a ton of time carefully curating and understanding those core values and finding ways to connect the actions that I do with what I say is most important in my life, aligns with purpose, and helps me to fulfill my mission. It is how I live each day of my life these days as I track my daughter through the African bush in my mind on our never-ending quest to Live for 2 in all I do.

Conscious Doing has meaning, has a purpose, has direction, and it has a goal. It is addictive, makes me feel alive, feeds my curiosity, keeps me engaged, allows me to stay connected with my daughter, and I’ve never been more organically fulfilled in my entire life. I have no plans to stop for the rest of my life.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is something the author of Wherever You Go, There You Are calls “Conscious Living”. This is the art of connecting your mind and consciousness with what you are doing in the present moment. There is no goal, no quest, no purpose, no mission, no why…no nothing. It is just reality, in the flesh.

Conscious Living has always scared the crap out of me, because I just didn’t get it.

Why do something that is literally designed at its core to have absolutely no point. As the author says, if you are finding meaning in your meditation, you are doing it wrong. If you are “improving”, you are doing it wrong. If you are preaching its benefits to others, you are missing the what the idea of conscious living is all about.

So why even try mindfulness, meditation, and the art of conscious living? I have no idea if I’m right, but my working hypothesis is this is all about letting go.

Conscious Doing and living your values, mission, and purpose are all about taking control of your life through clear action. It is about leveraging your imagination and creativity to the fullest to work toward a greater purpose than just yourself. It is about having direction and setting out toward the promise of a greater tomorrow. When you do it right, conscious doing provides happiness, fulfillment, connection, curiosity, imagination, hope, promise, meaning, etc. Who wouldn’t want all those things? I know I do, which is why I do it.

Conscious Living, on the other hand, is a little harder to immediately grasp its benefits. It takes time and patience to understand that it is about letting go of the wheel and just being one with the world around you in the moment. It took me awhile on this journey, but I’m finally starting to understand that Conscious Living has its place in the balance equation along with Conscious Doing. Conscious Living helps me to feel more calm, relaxed, light, and at ease. I don’t feel the pressure of the future or the pain of the past. As a matter of fact, I feel nothing, and it is nice to feel nothing every now and then.

Question: What would it feel like for you to let go every once in a while, and just exist?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Your Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn