#2 What Does Living Consciously Actually Mean

Welcome to Different Points, episode number two. I hope that you saw the introductory episode yesterday. So thank you very much for joining myself and Roy Colan, my beautiful co-host, because everyone says my lovely assistant, don't they? And Roy, welcome today.

How are you today? I'm very good. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this because I think even the fact that we're going to do one a day during the weekdays so that people can kind of digest and keep them short, but also get your creative juices flowing, I think is exciting. And we want to know your feedback as well, what you're thinking of the way we're doing things.

100%. So today's topic that Roy and I came up with is what does living consciously actually mean? And if you're rolling your eyes and saying, oh my God, everyone's going on about that on Instagram at the moment, every second reel is about living consciously. And everyone says they've got the answer to how to do that.

I will first of all share that I've been exploring what does living consciously actually mean for most of my life. And I absolutely have not got it nailed, but I've certainly been practicing it. So Roy, would you like to say something about what does living consciously mean for you? I think it's kind of, it's like mindset.

It's like being present. So I make sure that everything I'm doing, that I'm happy in doing it. Like we don't know when our last day will come.

Hopefully we live to 200 plus, you know, they can reverse aging eventually, things be great, but we don't know, will it be tomorrow? And you want to make sure every day you're doing something that you like. So whether that's making sure if you like a nice coffee in the morning, if you go for a walk, if you go to the gym, read a book, that you're not kind of putting it off for the weekend or living for the weekend, that everything you're doing is for the now. And when you're doing things, you're in the present.

So if I'm doing something, I'm not glued to the phone, because then you're kind of nowhere. And for me, when I'm walking, I'm paying attention to nature. I'm looking at the birds flying.

I'm watching the frogs jumping as I'm walking, because they were afraid and I think I'm a predator. You know, if I'm outside in the garden, reading the book, I'm watching, you know, the bee landing on the flower and the flower bending, or the ants just attacking something and just paying attention, not interfering. And I think to me, that's kind of living consciously, but also making sure that what did I do today that filled my soul, that made me feel good, filled my cup.

And even though we all have work to do, we've chores to do, we can do that in between things. So for example, if you're ironing, I'm listening to a podcast or I'm listening to music, you know, and I'm doing things that I'm enjoying and it's not churning through life. And I think you decide whether you do that and stop blaming this, blaming that, blaming the government.

You have a choice to do something. It doesn't matter how much money you are. You take a walk, it doesn't cost you.

You know, you go out in the garden, you know, people are, you can go into a thrift store and get a book for two bucks. There's plenty of things you can do that's not budget oriented. And I think even when I'm walking, I know if I'm out of tune, there's something, I can just feel it.

And then I, I adjust, I go, okay, what's going on here? And I make sure I adjust. And that's me. That's what I think is kind of conscious feeling.

Beautiful. I love that. And I love the way you connected that in with this thing of feeling that life's been worthwhile and not, and not waiting for the moment when life's going to become worthwhile, you know, saying no, have it be so now.

And it just, it just reminded me of a couple of things. I've been doing some yin yoga recently. And for those who don't know what yin yoga is, you get into a pose and then you just stay there for ages, breathing, and just your body weight just pulls you into the pose and there's nothing to do.

So you can just let your mind rabbit off and do the shopping list, or you can let your mind go into the feelings that you're having inside the shape and, and feeling the breath and feeling things sort of popping and cracking and sort of loosening up as you go. And, you know, one is you're avoiding the experience. And the other is you're right in the experience and feeling it.

And that's a very rich, like you were saying in the garden, that then becomes a sort of multi-level experience. And you suddenly realise how interesting it is to have a body and how interesting it is to be in that moment, as opposed to, oh, I've got to stay here for five minutes and it hurts. So it's a completely different.

And I was also remembering there was a fantastic weight loss programme years ago, where all you had to do was each mouthful, you would put that mouthful in your mouth, and you would chew it and you would consciously focus on the experience of chewing it and swallowing it. And then you would load your fork with the next mouthful and do the same. So you were consciously eating.

And people started doing this and they were losing weight, because they weren't just automatically shoving stuff in unconsciously. You know, and I think in life, sometimes we shove life in unconsciously, when we could actually pause and taste each mouthful of life as we go. Yeah.

And when you're talking about the conscious eating, I went on a retreat in Costa Rica, maybe 10 years ago. And they were basically, the guy that was doing it, I'm not sure if he was vegan or vegetarian, so there was no meat. And it was like, I remember eating the watermelons.

And well, first of all, you know, there are melons and things like that. They're fantastic, as opposed to stuff we get in the supermarkets. But that's what he was saying, close your eyes and just eat slowly.

And I was like, you're feeling the juices going down. And like you're enjoying the food, I'd say a hundred times more. And society today, they're sitting in front of the TV.

Hence why sometimes people, they buy Pringles or Lay's or something like that, and they're just going, and then they go, it's gone. They don't even enjoy it. So when you're eating, try to eat with the family, turn off technology, sit down, have the conversation.

And if you're on your own, sometimes just enjoy every bite or give gratitude for what you're doing. So when you're eating it, you know, give thanks to the farmer that's done it, give thanks to the plants, you know, and the sun that's created all this. And by doing that, I think you're nourishing your body with gratitude.

Yeah, beautiful. So today, as you go through your day, you've got opportunities all day to live consciously today. And another thing, by the way, is take any expectation off of living consciously every single second of your life.

Because if you are trying to do that, you will send yourself mad. But if you're just keeping coming back to living consciously and forgive yourself, if you suddenly realized you were just unconscious for 20 minutes, it's not a big deal. Or 20 years.

Or 20 years. Exactly. And just enjoy and savour and really enjoy it and just see how you'd feel different tonight.

And how you maybe sleep differently. And how it is when you have your dinner with your family, whether that feels different for you. So thank you so much, everybody for watching and listening.

Do check out our other one episode at the moment, but other episodes coming up soon. And we'll see you tomorrow. And thanks very much, Roy, for being here again today.

Thank you, Catherine. I look forward to episode three. Brilliant.