What would happen if we started being honest with ourselves about what we really want?

What if we started being ruthlessly real? What if we actually said the things that we think about, but are afraid to say?

Our egos may shrink and squirm, afraid to face reality as it is; afraid to bypass all the pretense; afraid to confront the shear nakedness of authenticity.

But maybe if we could evade the grip of our ego-based fears, we could embrace unfiltered, unmediated reality.

Maybe, just then, we’d start to come alive.

When I speak of open, authentic honesty, I mean being truly connected to your higher self. Not the ego-dominated self, but your spirit, (or whatever word you’d like to use, the word is not important). When you’re tuned into this source that is bigger than your puny ego, your living from a state of unadulterated awareness.

When you’re acting from this state, you’re not thinking about whether what you’re doing is right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate. You act completely naturally, unafraid to express yourself authentically and freely. You’re not afraid to tell someone how you really feel or ask for something you need. It’s from this place that you experience bliss, because there is no ego holding you back from it. There is no hesitation when the ego is not present.

So how do you get into this state of flow and uninhibited movement?

Here are the three simplest and most effective things you can to become more conscious, and in turn, more authentic.

• Practice mindfulness. This is the most important aspect of acting authentically. If you’re not being mindful, you lose awareness of your ability to determine whether you are acting reactively or if you are acting from your authentic Self. I have to admit, remaining in a position of persistent mindfulness is not an easy task. This is not something you will master in a day, a month or even a year. But you can practice, and the more you practice the more it will be easy to remain mindful. The way to practice mindfulness is to simply center your focus and attention on whatever you are presently doing or experiencing. Easy to describe, difficult to practice.
• Use reminders to help you stay mindful. There are a lot of mental triggers (or anchors, in NLP terms) you can create to prompt you to return to mindfulness. One great trigger is remembering to be mindful every time you see a red light at a stop light; or just every time you come to a stoplight, green, yellow or red. I have a bell on my bike that I ring when I’m riding to help remind me to be mindful. Another good and more permanent reminder is getting a tattoo somewhere you can easily see to make you mindful. If that’s not your thing, you could have a bracelet or ring that you’ve chosen as a sacred symbol to help remind you to be mindful.
• Practice daily meditation. There is no substitute for consistent, daily meditation in aiding your facility to remain present. The best thing about meditation is it also allows you time to actually listen to yourself. Most of the time, we’re constantly talking to ourselves and we never take the time to listen. During the practice of silent awareness, we have the opportunity to listen to our thoughts and feelings, and in doing so, we’ll be better equipped to remain mindful when we feel pulled into unconscious patterns. The most important thing to do is start small. Practice meditating for 5 or 10 minutes each day before you go to sleep or after you wake up. Don’t be hard on yourself if you feel your mind isn’t quieting fast enough, or if you think you’re not good at meditating. If you remain diligent, your mind will eventually get tired of listening to itself babble incessantly.

The more mindful we become, the more we increase our capacity for action that is stripped of pretense and duplicity.

When we’re completely authentic, we’re no longer afraid to speak and act in meaningful ways. We’re not afraid to tell someone how we truly feel. We don’t shirk when faced with the choice of either acting from integrity or slipping into cowardly ego-based decisions.

Maybe if we started saying the things we think but do not say, our lives would have more meaning.

Special thanks to guest contributor Jonathan Mead of Zen Habits for this article. It’s always been one of my favorite ones that I read and re-read often.

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Time to shop for the men and boys in our lives. Here’s my top deal picks for Christmas gifts for those special guys! {Most would also make great gifts for women and girls too!}.

I never pay shipping, I get my ordered goods in 2 days and I do NOT pay for an Amazon Prime plan to get that 2 day shipping! (Read this previous post about how to make that happen).

Read my post yesterday about my rave over the Kindle Fire!

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my top picks for gifts and deals for toddlers!

I’m giving a little head start with the PictureMe Books offer by York Photo. I use York Photo for many of my 4×6 prints and they never let me down. They have this 2 for 1 special on right now which would make the ultimate Christmas gift for Grandma and Grandpa!

Related posts:

1. Christmas on the Beach Photographic Art
2. How to Get Free Amazon.com Prime Shipping
3. Daily Bargains & School of Choice Gets Paid
4. Business Start-Up Ideas: Slogans
5. Business Start-Up Ideas: Words that Sell

Today kicks off my annual ten days of Christmas deals and I’m starting with gift ideas for women. As many of you know, I buy everything from cereal, diapers and apparel to electronics, books and nutritional supplements on Amazon. Just ask my UPS driver, he’ll tell you all about how he comes to my house more than anybody else!

I never pay shipping, I get my ordered goods in 2 days and I do NOT pay for an Amazon Prime plan to get that 2 day shipping! (Read this previous post about how to make that happen).

You can’t go wrong with a little inspirational gift and these top the charts! Everyone loves quotes. I tweet hundreds of quotes and these are some of the ones that get retweeted and commented on most. They’d be well received in a pretty Christmas gift bag with some color coordinated tissue (simple as that!).

Note: They are currently on sale and some are selling out quick. These ones were in stock at time of writing this: