“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
-- Proverbs 23:7

Over the past few months I've been going through a period of transition, unloading personal baggage, cutting back on my business, and truly taking the time to discover what it is I want out of life, what it means to live a simpler lifestyle. And through it all, I’ve learned what it means to live a conscious lifestyle and how hard it is to change on a personal level. It’s easy to sort of drift through life doing what’s expected, doing what’s comfortable, and doing what’s become routine. It’s a lot harder to live a life that constantly asks us to make choices and in making those choices, really think about the outcome of those choices.

When choosing to live a conscious life there are a few things we must do:

• Let go of emotional baggage.
  We’ve all made mistakes in life. We’ve all had regrets. We’ve all experienced difficult times—emotionally, physically, financially, and even spiritually. We’ve all been dealt a bad hand at one time in our lives. We’ve all made choices we aren’t proud of. But if we choose to allow the past to rule over us, we’ll never be able to fully live in the present because our lives will constantly be based upon what was instead of what is or what could be.
  
  
• Make time to reflect.
  In the past, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my character flaws and wondering how I could improve as a mother, a wife, a friend, a person. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to better yourself but there is something dreadfully wrong with putting yourself down all the time. It kills your spirit and puts you in the wrong frame of mind.
  
  A healthy reflective lifestyle is one that allows us to look at both the good and the bad in our lives. It allows us to be appreciative of our good qualities while beckoning us to improve on our not-so-good qualities. It causes us to really think about the choices we’ve made, why we made them, and whether or not we’re happy with those choices. It also causes us to get to know ourselves better and in doing so, find true happiness.
  
  
• Work towards a personal goal.
  I’ve always been good at setting and achieving business goals. And while not all of them turned out as expected, I did understand the importance of staying the course, of adjusting for unforeseen circumstances, and for making changes as outside forces dictated. But when it came to personal goals it was an entirely different story. You could even go so far as to say that I didn’t feel worthy enough to put that much energy or thought into my own needs or wants.
  
  Perhaps I thought it was an “act of selfishness” because I’d much rather help someone else work towards his (or her) personal goals and dreams than work on my own. But what I’ve discovered is that it is not selfish to put ourselves first, at times. In fact, it can be a very healthy act.
  
  I’ve discovered that it’s a lot like that airplane scenario where the plane is about to crash and the passengers are told to put on their oxygen masks before attempting to help someone else or that cruise ship scenario where passengers are told to put on their life jackets before attempting to put life jackets on other passengers.
  
  The reason for this is simple: If we choose to take care of ourselves first, we can help a lot more people. But if we choose to take care of someone else first, without giving any thought to our own personal well-being, we could lose our lives before reaching those other people—and then who would take care of them? In other words, we can’t give if we have nothing left to give.
  
  
• Consider the real cost.
  It’s easy to drift through life without thinking about the consequences of our actions, our thoughts, or the choices we make. It’s easy to just let life happen but in doing so we can actually be hurting ourselves, our loved ones, and the environment in the process.
  
  Every action we take has a consequence. Whether that consequence is good or bad is ultimately up to us. We must take the time to figure out why we do what we do and why we make the choices we make. We must understand the real cost of the choices we make.
  
  For instance, if we spend every waking minute trying to work our businesses, what does that say about our family values? If we get so fat that our doctors are afraid we might die, what does that say about how we value ourselves? If we buy stuff we don’t need only to throw it out later or to look better in the eyes of others, how does that impact the world around us?
  
  
• Choose to be positive.
  I used to be known as the “Whatever Girl” because I wouldn’t allow the negatives in my life to knock me down and I refused to dwell on them. I had faith that God would make everything turn out right.
  
  But when life continues to hand us lemons and we must constantly struggle against the tide, it can be taxing. It can wear down our defenses and even steer us down the wrong paths. It can strip us of a positive, cheerful attitude. And if we let it, it can rob us of our faith and our relationships.
  
  But if we choose to find the positives amidst the negatives—or in spite of them—we’re bound to live much happier, joy-filled lifestyles.
  
  Choosing to live consciously requires us to deliberately elect to seek out the positives. It is consciously paying attention to the good things in life and meditating on them, recognizing them, and appreciating them.
  
  It’s the smell of your favorite fragrance, it’s a beautiful star-filled night, it’s the smile on a loved one’s face, it’s the laughter of a child, it’s a well-deserved compliment.