how to be aware in an unaware world

Tag: guides

Principles
At the same time as writing this new post, I began a popular challenge called 75 Hard about two weeks ago.
The challenge is to go 75 Days doing specific tasks that will turn into habits after about day 66 (according to James Clear – author of Atomic Habits).
I modified the original version to my liking with a great app called ‘75 Days Challenge’ which is among many that serve the same purpose. The habits I have set out to ingrain over the next 61 days are:
- Do a small act of kindness
- Meditate for at least 10 minutes
- Do a workout routine (30 push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and squats)
- Read for at least 20 minutes
- Write a full page journal entry
- Cook a healthy meal
- No Buy Challenge (only purchase necessary consumables)
As I began and modified this challenge, I came across a set of principles that I would like to guide me. Those principles are the building blocks of character, and so this post is all about that intersection.
Defined through the lens of mindfulness, character takes on a deeper meaning: the consistent outward and inward expression of virtues in right thought, emotion, and action.
To be consciously aware of how and why our inner self impacts our outer actions is no easy task. It is in fact a very rare task, especially consistently.
What this looks like day to day is someone who habitually responds to life’s ups and downs with clarity, integrity, responsibility and compassion rather than judgment, reactivity, and impulse.
Meditation, when paired with these subtle character choices, may just change our very being.
Below are principles in mindfulness that can change the very nature of our egos, or as my mom likes to call it, edging God out.
Intentional Choice:
Mindfulness creates a small yet powerful space between stimulus and response. I want to yell at this person and I am yelling at this person or I want to buy this car and I am driving off the lot in this car.
To be the backseat rider of our own emotions, sensations, and thoughts really is a super power. Most people live in a dream state, momentarily aware from time to time, but never fully awake.
Take consumerism for example. Most people, including myself, fall victim to indulgent spending, racking up credit cards, not realizing all they have spent until they gawk at the bill.
Self-awareness:
To know oneself is to know the secrets of the universe. See your intentions, biases, and habits as they rise and fall without denial or distortion. Call them out in a kind and loving way. Write them down in order to see their frequency.
We cannot know a mind that is clouded in judgement, especially towards ourselves.
This takes a gentle practice of noting. All while being attentive to context and consequences.
Ethical Presence:
The practice of ethics was once very commonplace, but seen more than we recognize today: opening the door for someone, helping someone with their groceries, or my favorite, giving the endless gifts of a smile and a compliment.
Ethical Principles such as kindness, honesty, and fairness exhibited each day, naturally, grow within us the seed of happiness.
Happiness is when our thoughts, actions, and speech are in harmony.
Emotional Regulation:
Our character is not defined in the absence of difficult emotions, in fact, it is sharpened through them.
Character is defined through meeting our emotions with steadiness and wisdom, rather than allowing them to dictate our behavior.
Compassion & Interconnectedness:
A character defined by mindful living recognizes the shared humanity of all living things. It forces us to act with empathy, care, respect, and yes, awareness (especially under stress, tiredness, or in conflict).
I can’t think of a more mindful act than to be shown disagreement and yet still be warm and kind, unconcerned with right or wrong.
And so, I think I’ll just leave it at that!
Three More Things!
1. Read – The 7 Principles of Mindfulness
2. Listen – Wake Up / Wind Down Series
3. Watch – Poverty isn’t a lack of character
May 8, 2026
Gadgets
“Love people and use things because the opposite never works.”
– Joshua Fields Millburn
Growing up in a sprawling suburbia, I would spend so much money, time, energy, and attention span on Amazon, Walmart, and just shopping online.
My father used to remark on all the ‘gadgets’ I had accumulated through the years, saying how ridiculous they all were, which I can look back on now and appreciate.
The useful and purposeful ‘gadgets’ I found were only about 10% of the ‘gadgets’ I spent hard-earned money obtaining.
It was a small problem when I was spending more than I was making and a big problem when I was making more money just to spend it on shit I truly didn’t need.
I look back today and think, how could I be so consumed with consumption? How could I not have seen the trajectory of this behavior leading ever deeper into a hole of debt and depression?
Reflection
And then, on a crisp summer afternoon in college, I was flipping through Netflix (mindlessly) until a title caught my attention, ‘MINIMALISM: A Documentary About The Important Things’
I thought, “Well that sounds interesting, I’m filled with a lot of unimportant things in my life right now and I kinda need answers to this dilemma” (which I assumed it would provide).
And boy did the now cult favorite independent film provide answers, but not in the way you would think.
It was after that movie, after the tears of realization and reflection, that I’d been living my life all wrong, and after talking it out with my friends and family I decided to make a change (but I’ll get back to that).
This movie lays the groundwork for a philosophy that has been around for thousands of years and is really just an evolved term for intentional living or valued-based living (a way of life that used to be incredibly commonplace).
Minimalism itself is not a new idea: the concept dates back to the Stoics, to every major religion, and, more recently, to Emerson, Thoreau, and Tyler Durden. What’s new is the problem: never before have people been more seduced by materialism, and never before have people been so willing to forsake loved ones to acquire heaps of meaningless stuff.
For most of history, people didn’t even think about having more than they needed because they didn’t have the means to accumulate stuff and were therefore content with what they had.
But during the industrial revolution, modern marvels became cheaper and cheaper to make, therefore cheaper and cheaper to price.
It took just eight or so years for the smartphone to become both cheap enough for anyone to buy and accessible enough for anyone to get.
But in the wake of this paradigm shift in society, towers and towers of waste began to form (evidently the main byproduct of modern capitalism).
I saw, for the first time, that waste was thrown out and piled up everywhere (literally and metaphorically). And once I saw it, I could not unsee it.
I had been so consumed in shopping for shit I never needed that I did not see the shit lying all around me, the same stuff I was spending so much money on.
I had had enough, so I did three things that fateful afternoon:
1. I took on the minimalist challenge to sell, give, or try and recycle all the shit that I did not value.
2. I started writing about my decision and the implications it had on me, which led to this very blog!
3. I changed my spending habits to reflect my values, vowing to be mindful of where, when, and how I consume anything.
It has been a rocky road since then and I have not been entirely faithful to those rules I set, but for the most part, I have remained changed at my core.
It was also through the practice of focused attention that I began to see the train before it departed, with all its gadgets and gizmos (as my father would say).
Encouragement
I encourage us to ask the hard questions today, questions like, “Is this stuff lying around me both useful and valued in my eyes?” or “How long have I even used this thing?”
List those things that you probably should get rid of, sell, or recycle. If you share a lot of that stuff, write the list together with your partner.
A million excuses will get in your way, but trust me, it is better to begin this questioning earlier than later when you suddenly open your eyes in retirement to the fact you have so much stuff.
Through deeper questioning, we find deeper meaning and begin to shape our lives in new ways.
Thanks
I am thankful for the minimalists and their continuous influence on me to live a more intentional life.
And I am thankful for all who continue to read this blog, to which I have really just begun, thanks for taking this journey with me!
As always, feel free to leave a comment or share this post. You can also Buy Me a Coffee if you are inclined to do so. Thank you in advance!
Links
November 30, 2023
Inaction
“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time as I especially like to recite it when sometimes I’m told meditation is a lazy practice.
I also just realized I already wrote an entire blog post about it just a couple of weeks ago (Mindfulness & Action). But the message is a powerful one, and my thoughts are different.
Meditation is not about sitting and doing nothing, watching the world go by. It is about stepping back and observing the world before jumping in recklessly.
I like to best compare it to being both the player and the coach at a soccer or fútbol match.
Whereby we stand and sit on the sidelines watching and observing most of the game and jump in only when we feel most inclined to as well as stepping off to rest when needed.
I like to think of Messi, who as a forward or striker loves to walk around the midline or near the defenders, positioning himself strategically, while also sprinting as hard as he can to get the ball and score when presented with the opportunity.
There are so many opportunities out there to give it our all: Work, school, relationships, passions, creativity pursuits, etc. Meditation simply equips us with the clarity and composition needed to give it our all.
Reflection
Leonardo is elegantly comparing stagnant water to a lazy mind, even calling it a sin against God.
Sloth, is one of the seven deadly sins elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas when he writes in his first epistles that “to flee vice is the beginning of virtue and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.”
Leonardo was best known as a Renaissance Man or a man who wore many hats: a polymath, inventor, painter, sculptor, politician, writer, poet, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
Although there is little account that Leonardo Da Vinci meditated or promoted meditation, it is safe to say he was mindful about all that he did and said, careful to articulate himself in an esteemed manner.
Times are much different today than in the late 16th century, but the danger of laziness and inaction is much the same.
We must step out of our discomfort and sloth-like attitude to achieve purpose and vigor. It’s quite logical, that the more we do what we love, the more we get out of life, quite literally.
But sometimes we have to do shit we don’t like to. Sometimes we have to get our hands dirty when we prefer them clean so that we can turn to what we enjoy most with a renewed, vigorous mind.
Encouragement
I encourage us today to do just one thing you find uncomfortable, whether it be a workout or a difficult conversation, and do it with the knowledge that it is stimulating the mind in wondrous ways.
Workout? I remember once, while living in Nashville, deciding quite randomly one day to bike to school each weekday, which was a 6-mile one-way ride, in late fall.
Maybe not the smartest timing, but hell I had just found this quote and was determined to take action, and I did. I rode 13 miles daily for about 3 months straight and felt incredible through it all.
Difficult Conversation? I remember needing to tell my best friend, co-workers, boss, friends, and family that I was selling 99% of my possessions and moving to Europe for a while.
Even though it was more of a sad message than a difficult one, those conversations were the catalyst for a much-needed shift in my life. They required nothing short of mindful action.
We are capable of so, so much, and sometimes all it takes is the right push from the right person or message to get us moving.
Thanks
Thank you deeply for all the kind feedback and encouragement ya’ll have given me these past few months as I’ve bombarded your inboxes.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or share this post. You can also Buy Me a Coffee if you are inclined to do so. Thank you in advance!
Links
October 28, 2023