3 Concepts of Consuming Consciously
Consciously choose your optimal consumption to reach your unique point of harmony.
Live in the Flow
Stepping into the flow of abundance allows you to create and maintain harmony between your occupation, relationships, health and wealth. In my blog, 3 Strategies to Invite the Flow of Abundance, I shared several strategies to invite you to step into the flow of generosity and gratitude. This blog goes deeper into the strategy of conscious consumption, inviting you to consume wisely and purposefully .
Consume Wisely and Purposefully
The most important thing about consuming wisely and purposefully is to remember that you always have a choice in what you think, feel, say and do. You also get to choose what you want to consume intellectually, emotionally and physically, which will influence your choices. The only things you can control in your life are your thoughts, emotions, words and actions. Your choices impact your abundance.
Here are 3 concepts to help you step into the flow of abundance:
Intellectual - You Choose What Information You Absorb
Emotional - You Choose The People Who Influence You
Physical - You Choose The Things That Are Important To You
Wisely and purposefully choosing what you consume in alignment with your vision and values will naturally open the flow of abundance in your life.
Intellectual - Information
Choose what information you are willing to absorb. Consider all the ways you currently get information. You probably started thinking about news sources on television or possibly a documentary, various online sources, or even newspapers and magazines. You may have also included nonfiction books and courses, podcasts and videos. These are all great examples of ways to get information.
Are you consciously choosing the best sources and questioning whether or not the information is valid and the source is reliable? Consciously choose information that will help you learn and grow, because everything you let in becomes a part of you. You will use it for future decisions.
You probably limited your list to sources of information that you consider to be news or educational. But did you consider other sources, like your favorite books, movies and music? What kinds of stories do you like? What kinds of information do you think your entertainment sources provide?
Accurate historical fiction can teach you a lot about history and cultures. For example, they could influence what you think about various class systems, such as royalty vs. peasants, masters vs. slaves. Romantic fiction can influence your idea of what relationships should look like. Some of the most popular movie scenes involve sexual misconduct as appealing.
Anything that you would normally consider to be morally wrong could be made to seem morally right if it’s given the right twist. Think about war movies. They romanticize being a member of the military, and your side is always the good guys. In reality, the “good” side could be the ones who are the actual oppressors, but reality can be twisted to justify many atrocities. The fact that wars are now seen as normal is a product of this type of influence.
This influence can come from anywhere, historical and religious books obviously influence people’s values and beliefs. Myths and legends can shape our value systems within our culture. You have an exorbitant amount of information that you have absorbed over the years and incorporated into your belief system.
To consciously be your best, carefully choose what you’re feeding your mind. Question your answers as well as others’ answers. Consciously choose how you want to learn and grow. Best of all, listen to the still, small voice within. Your intuition will help you sense when you should question what is being fed to you as normal. Choose information that uplifts you and helps you fulfill your life purpose.
Emotional - People
Choose the people you are willing to be influenced by. You are largely influenced by the people you are with consistently. Your beliefs, reactions and behaviors will be similar. Tribalism is alive and well. It can be difficult to make change from within when you realize that something isn’t right. So consciously choose to spend most of your time with people who truly do share your values, so you can help promote positive advances toward peace, love and abundance for all.
Spend your valuable time with people who join you in a loving, mutually respectful relationship. Give your time, talent and treasure where you feel a sense of belonging with others who share your values of peace, love and abundance. Step into your leadership responsibilities to inspire others to collaborate. Develop your courageous communication skills. Send love to all.
Physical - Things
Choose the things - the activities, material possessions and environment - that are important to you in supporting your vision and values. This is another area where television, advertisements, social media and magazines influence your choices. There is a brilliant science and art in play to convince you that you need to have a lot more than you truly need. Then the more you consume, the more you have to work to afford and maintain more stuff. Very few people are actually happy with the results.
Consciously choose what you need and how much you need. Make rules for yourself to help you stop the addiction to buying more stuff, such as no impulse buys. If you’ve waited a day or two and have really thought about whether or not you need it and it aligns with your vision and values, then you should be able to make a better decision.
Be prepared in advance of having everything put in front of you. Decide what your perfect vision would look and feel like. Truly question whether you want it and all the responsibilities that go with it. Adjust it to the level that you would truly love. Then before consuming anything, ask yourself if it aligns with your vision and values. You’ll make better decisions more consistently.
Create healthy habits to support the life you would love. Think about the consequences of unhealthy habits and decide if any benefits outway those consequences. You’re not shoulding or denying yourself; you’re actively choosing what you would love. And sometimes you will choose a less healthy alternative, but you probably won’t make it a habit.
Create a prioritized schedule to support the life you would love. The big rocks idea is the best way to approach this. Emphasize the most important/urgent things first, then the important/not urgent. If you have extra time you can fill it with the unimportant activities that you enjoy. Be sure to leave some room to breathe. Again the key is to decide your choices based on the life you would love, not what you think you should do.
Create natural systems to keep harmony in your life, to organize your home and your environment - personal, work and community. Track your use of resources and adjust as needed to align with your vision and values. Use tools like the 80/20 rule to help you focus most of your resources on the important things first and to allow for some flexibility and spontaneity as well.
Flow in Abundance
Choose to intentionally invest your time, talent and treasure in ways that support your amazing life vision being realized. Establish relationships, habits and systems that invite the flow of abundance for you to achieve and maintain the life you have envisioned. Consciously consume mentally, emotionally and physically, making choices that resonate with your vision and values, for your greatest good and the greatest good of the world.