Conscious Living : Why People Deny Reality
When people choose to escape from a reality it is usually because that reality is causing them some degree of pain, discomfort or boredom.Â
And since it is a natural human reaction to avoid these things, it is often far easier to ignore or deny them and not live consciously.
Whilst these avoidance behaviours certainly may provide some short term relief, ultimately the long term consequences become more and more severe with each passing day.
This is one of the main reasons why living consciously can prove to be so difficult, because our natural tendency to avoid the things which cause us discomfort, continually creates barriers which block the path to a more conscious lifestyle.
Therefore in order to live consciously, a person must be filled with an enormous amount of self dicipline, courage and inner strength so that they can smash through these barriers, and fully awaken the potential that lies within them.
It is only when you are able to fully accept the reality of a situation, whether good or bad, and without trying to deny or ignore it by escaping to another reality, will you start living a more conscious and successful life.
Lets now have a look at an example to demonstrate the consequences of not living life consciously and avoiding reality.
No Escape From Reality - Shelley’s Story
Note : The following story is a fictional example. If you “click here” you can read a real life example of someone who underwent a similiar transformation to Shelley.
Shelly was overweight and was feeling depressed due to her size, however she found it easy to avoid this pain by eating more food, watching TV and sleeping.
Whilst these things provided Shelly with a temporary escape into another more pleasing reality, in the morning when Shelly woke up and looked at herself in the mirror, she was immediately brought back to her original reality. She was very fat, and was getting fatter.
Looking at herself in the mirror every morning caused Shelly to feel more depressed, more pain and more discomfort.Â
This only increased her motivation to avoid this unpleasant reality, and Shelly soon began comforting herself again with chocolates, cake and TV.
Shelly knew this would take her mind “off things” and make her feel better. At least, until tomorrow morning, when the whole process would start again.
The Reality Cycle
Here we have of a classic example of a person who is trapped inside a “reality cycle”. By choosing to ignore her problems, Shelley made them worse. And the worse things got, the harder she tried to avoid them.
In essence, Shelley created a self perpetuating cycle which can only end when a) she accepts her true reality and stops trying to avoid it, or b) Shelly dies.
Breaking The Cycle, Accepting The Truth
Now that you have seen the consequences of avoiding consciousness in your life, lets have a look at what happened to Shelly once she accepted the true reality of her situation, and stopped trying to avoid it by escaping to another reality.
What Happened To Shelly?
One morning Shelley woke up, looked at herself in the mirror and decided she had enough. She could not continue living her life like this, and running away from her problems was only making things worse.
From then on Shelley made a commitment to herself. No longer would she deny or disown the reality of her situation. From now on she would accept her reality, and live life consciously.
So how did Shelley do? When Shelley decided to fully accept the reality she was in, she automatically placed herself in a position where she could change that reality.
By accepting her situation, Shelley was able to take the most appropriate action to change how she looked. She stopped eating “comfort food” and watching TV all day, and instead ate a healthy diet and exercised regularly.
Although it did take a lot of hard work and discipline over many years, eventually Shelley shed her excess weight and is now the envy of all her friends. Shelley’s only regret is that she didn’t start living consciously sooner!
Shelly’s story is a great example of what happens when you avoid reality, and what can happen when you accept it.
When you face the true reality of your situation, rather than trying to avoid or hide from the discomfort it brings you, only then will you put yourself in a position where you can affect a meaning change into your life. This is the very essence of living consciously.
HI this is a real nice story and all but I don’t beleive that this is a real picture of Shelly. Soory but if you loose that much wait the skin does not bouce back just like that. I am glad that you can motivate some people with this but it just made me think that all of it was a crock - I mean the picture is a crock so why should I rust what you say. Be carefull in the mediums you use to convey your message.
Sophie, this was a fictional example. I have now made this clear in the article.
I behave similarly But escaping realities..i just get drunk and record music… i think its called an artist..