Lifestyle vs. Livingness
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Lifestyle vs. Livingness
Our society teaches us how to live life by focussing on the outside, making it all about what we can see and what is tangible. The buzzword in this context is lifestyle, which often corresponds to a certain image of life: this can be good food with a glass of wine, holidays on the beach or life in the countryside.
The image looks a little different for everyone – for some, coffee is a lifestyle, for others it's green smoothies. But these pictures all have one thing in common; their orientation is to the outside. How does it look? How does it function? What kind of picture or image can I identify with to give a deeper meaning to my life?
For example, we grow up with a certain idea and picture that celebrating an occasion involves lots of food and alcohol, a certain kind of music and location and if all this is supplied we consider it a good party. However, do we really enjoy ourselves? Or do we actually just numb ourselves and at times even knock ourselves out to take the edge off life and not feel what is going on with all the dynamics that are playing out?
Have we lost the true sense of joy?
Another example is we have the notion that if we go to bed early we miss out on something. However, what we are really missing is ourselves. No TV show, night-life activity or outer excitement can substitute this. What we do miss out on – if we seek this sort of evening entertainment – is a good night’s sleep, and what we essentially give up on is to feel fresh and energized the next morning ready to start the day with all of us... the all of us that we are missing in the first place.
The Way of The Livingness asks for exactly that; it asks us to connect to a quality within us first and once we have established that, to live it – from the inside out. Its starting point is that we are divine and therefore whole as we are, and that we do not need fixing. But we need to make a choice to connect to that place in us and express forth from there as otherwise we will be run by the world and its images and demands of us.
Livingness is therefore something that comes from within and grows when nourished and supported. In a way it is new every day, a wonderment of what one’s connection with life presents each day and has no premeditated concept of life, but at the same time livingness has a rhythm, daily rituals and a universal order that it follows.
Livingness means to live life in harmony with the body, acknowledging this vessel in its connection to a higher order and as a source of wisdom. This means first and foremost to take care of the body’s health and wellbeing as a starting point to supporting ourselves to be more harmonious. Making the decision to feel joy and love and to establish these qualities in one’s life without the need for perfection is a fundamental intention, and furthermore it is the ability to connect and share with other people.
Connection to self through conscious presence
Connecting and listening to yourself and your body in every moment brings a perfect rhythm to everything you do.
Livingness also means to allow oneself to strengthen the connection to a place of stillness within and to allow oneself more moments to reflect back on the body and this inner place of stillness, which serves us greatly throughout the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Livingness is an inner quality that needs nurturing and constant advancement and in turn holds and supports us through life by providing an inner strength and certain quality of movement.
Amazingly, many people in today’s world have lost their sense of what is truly nurturing for them and what isn't, relying on advice from outside their body – knowledge, ideas and beliefs that we read or hear in order to find orientation. There are few who listen to the innate wisdom of their body and observe themselves when they choose a product, a service or healing method – it is almost as if we have lost confidence in ourselves.
To support oneself to listen to the body and to re-establish contact with that inner wisdom is an enormous blessing for everyone, as then we no longer are dependent on the whims of the market and the latest trends, but instead know what we really need inside and what is actually nurturing for us.
There is a lot of uncertainty and scepticism in the world, but also a great willingness to jump onto every new trend. Our lives are carried by hope – the hope for happiness, for a better world, for romance and for eternal youth, etc. – or we have given up on all this long ago? But in the end, don't we all seek to feel loved, safe and secure in some way or other? And how often do we try to satisfy this longing through something we treat or afford on the outside instead of simply remembering the inner wisdom and power on the inside?
This is what The Way of The Livingness teaches us – how to find the way back to this innate place of deep knowing and absolute truth within.
Filed under
Livingness, Lifestyle, Philosophy, Behaviour, Culture, Essence, Harmony, Illusion, Healthy living
