Living With Intention
Allowing Peace Into Your Life
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Introduction
When people begin to notice they feel confused by what’s happening in their lives, a big step they can take to dispel that confusion is to actively seek out some helpful information. They might decide it’s time they begin to get a handle on what’s actually going on. They might decide they will start to awaken and become aware of some basic facts of life, and perhaps even consciously add “Spiritual” aspects to their personal journeys.
When people make conscious choices that they no longer want to remain confused and frustrated about their lives, there are countless ways in which they can implement those decisions. One might begin by reading some of the excellent books available that discuss some of the most fundamental aspects of human existence. A person might choose to attend classes to improve his or her physical, mental and/or Spiritual health. Perhaps some interesting audio tapes will find their way into the car’s cassette player….
Soon after we make the conscious decision to acquire some useful information and increase our awareness, opportunities to support that choice begin to present themselves from every direction. Sometimes, this phenomenon can be down right startling. The simple act of making a conscious choice seems to put the very universe into motion to provide us with opportunities to implement our decision. Such is certainly the case when we decide to change our perspective, expand our context, and thereby become more aware of what is actually happening all around us… and even more importantly, within us.
However, like any choice we make in our lives, the initial decision is one thing — while sticking with it is an entirely different matter. It’s frequently difficult to ignore the people around you who may be telling you, “You can’t possibly change.” “You don’t have the will power,” they might say. What is often far more difficult is ignoring your own ego as it starts going through a long list of reasons why you not only won’t be able to change, but that you don’t deserve anything positive in your life to begin with…. Yes, sticking with a decision to increase our awareness — our “level of consciousness” — can seem very difficult.
Particularly in areas such as Spirituality and conscious living, it’s very easy to revert to our former ways. Most of the people around us, at best, view their Spiritual life as something requiring some half-hearted attention for about an hour once each week. The vast majority of human beings believe they’re living consciously if their eyes are physically open and they’re moving about…. It never occurs to most of us that we might want to pay attention to what we’re doing (not to mention the fact we could also notice what we’re actually thinking). Consequently, the chances are quite good no one else will express any concern if we again behave in exactly the same fear-driven, reactionary ways we used to behave… the same ways most of the people around us are behaving….
Life does not have any preference as to whether or not we notice what we’re doing and what we’re thinking. We can choose to bounce around totally unaware right now, if we wish. Life will always provide us with the chance to pay attention later on. After all, each of us will ultimately “get it.” It’s not possible anyone will fail to “get it.” Every path leads back to our Source. It truly is only a matter of whether we choose to use a relatively direct route, or one that is, shall we say, less direct. Often, however, those less direct paths do seem to be packed with emotional turmoil, frustration and a lot of confusion. The pain we experience can sometimes be severe, but each of us may choose as we wish. We can choose to live our life consciously, with intention, or we can continue to bumble around in the darkness — darkness caused by the fact that we have effectively decided to keep our eyes closed….
Paying attention and living with beneficial intention takes effort. That effort does have its rewards (such as happiness, peace and tranquility), but it does take effort. Very few people will even notice, let alone say something to you, if you decide you aren’t going to continue to “work” at how you’re living your life. In fact, if you decide to revert to living your life unconsciously and unaware, most people will think you’ve returned to a “normal” state! Most people believe the pain, anguish and illness they have created in their lives is “normal.” They think “normal” means “usual,” as in what most people do… how most people behave and what most people experience. They don’t realize the truly normal state of Being for a person — someone’s natural state, if you will — is unconditional, tranquil Love. They have yet to make the choice to be happy and peaceful, regardless of what may be going on around them. They genuinely don’t realize they can make that choice. They don’t realize they can be happy and peaceful, even if only for a moment. And they certainly don’t believe they can simply choose to be peaceful all the time.
Once you have created the experience for yourself of facing adversity without becoming agitated or depressed… once you have experienced peace and tranquility even though those around you are angry and upset… you will begin to remember, as we noted above, that the required effort does have its rewards. But let’s face it, there are days when we simply don’t feel like making the effort... days when we get caught up in… whatever. There are days when we’d rather succumb to our ego’s desire we feel separate, alone and helpless. Those days will come. A fundamental decision each of us must make is whether we will choose to make such days the exception, or the rule. Almost everyone has a “bad day” now and then. Unfortunately, most people seem to have a “bad day” almost every day. You can literally decide whether most of your days are going to be “good” ones or “bad” ones….
If you decide you’re willing to expend the energy necessary so you can enjoy happiness, peace and tranquility in your life — at least most of the time — then this book might be of help to you. In the chapters that follow, you’ll discover some ways in which you can, effectively, make “efficient” use of your effort. Rather than spending enormous amounts of energy pursuing things that may have little or questionable value in terms of providing ourselves with peace and tranquility, let’s focus the use of our energy in ways that will give us a lot of “bang for the buck.” Why not take advantage of what other people have remembered — what they have learned about Life — over the past thousands of years? We need not “reinvent the wheel.” We can try some things other people have found helpful. Perhaps those same things will help us.
Living With Intention is not always easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it! (And clearly, most people are not doing it….) While it may not always be easy, it is always worth the effort. The resulting impact each of us has on everyone else… on all of Life… is more far-reaching than any of us can imagine. While we recognize we may not make every day a testament to the benefits of being aware of what we are actually doing and thinking (since most of us are, after all, going to have some “bad” days), let’s make a conscious choice that the “bad” days will be the exception. Let’s decide most of our days will be spent in wakefulness, living with beneficial intention.
(Author’s Note: Throughout my writing I often use the word “create” in the sense understood by most people. However, I believe anything and everything is already “available” within the infinite potential of the Unmanifested. Hence, for me, “creation” is always the manifestation of something that, in effect, already “exists” within All That Is. No “creating” [in the literal sense] ever takes place; rather, something is made manifest so it can be experienced. Consequently, when you encounter the term “create” within my writing, what I more accurately mean is to “make manifest from the Unmanifested” or to “rearrange what has already been manifested into another form.”)Adobe PDF Format; 263 pages
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