英文书分享｜《清醒地活》life itself is my career

书名：《清醒地活》The Untethered Soul

作者：Michael A. Singer 

关键词：self-reflection, mindfulness, self-awareness, inner freedom, consciousness

无法用语言表述看完Michael Singer这两本书带给我的影响，这颗种子现在是深深地种下去了，我不知道未来会结出什么样的果子，但是就像作者说的，It’s all exciting. It’s all challenging. I’m willing to accept and appreciate every single moment that’s in front of me.

《清醒地活》这本书真的是常读常新，可以称得上的是我的“心理按摩师”了！每次内心和身体里积累的“垃圾”，看一看这本书似乎就感觉垃圾都清理掉了，很神奇。最近百年一次看朋友圈才知道这两天是万圣节，我真是做展览的事情什么都给忘了，看着大家轻松搞怪的照片，我就觉得要是我们每个人的内心也是如此轻松无负担就好了。

回到北京，其实在现实生活中我看到的是大多数人都活得很沉重，我想这本书就更有必要了，提供了一个“不必沉重”的选项，不是通过各种各样外在的照片看起来”不沉重“，而是内心真正地轻松、喜悦和自在。

其实这本书一直都在问一个简单又直指人心的问题：Do you want to be happy or do you not want to be happy? 想到过去两年一些糟糕的事情把我卷到和事实对抗、不断消耗自己的漩涡里，再看到这个问题时我忍不住落泪：If you remain spontaneously happy and centered, no matter what happens, you will find God. That’s the amazing part. Yes, you will find happiness. 

I’m not exaggerating when I say this book literally changed my year of 2024. It helps me honestly look at myself in the most natural, intuitive manner. Every time I get distracted or disoriented, this book has a magical power to bring me back to the seat of the self. I always end up with less confusion, less blame and a greater sense of empowerment. 

This is your life——reclaim it!

The first lesson is to come to realize that this world is never going to unfold as the way we want it. It really has little to do with us or our thoughts. I’ve spent a lot of energy and time, trying to get the world I like it. I internally verbalize it, judge it, complain about it, and then decide what to do about it. As a result, I realized that reality is far less controllable than I thought, instead, I end up creating a lot of clutter in my own inner world. And the crucial truth is that problems from the outside world will keep coming, one after another. After this one’s gone, there will be another one. The bottom line is, we’ll never be free of problems until we are free from the part within us that holds so many of them. When we start to explore consciousness instead of the outside world, we will notice that we are the answer. There is no intellectual answer to problems in life——we are the answer. Be the answer, and everything will change.  

The most important thing in life

 is your inner energy

Consciousness is one of the great mysteries in life. Inner energy is another. We study the energy outside, but we ignore the energy within, and I am no difference. Energy can feel hard to pin down because it’s more of a metaphor, a way of talking about feelings, atmosphere, or an emotional state. This mix of meanings can make it tricky to understand. I guess it was because I experienced too many emotional fluctuations over the past two years, it helps me pay attention to my energy level and understand what boosts or drains me. I find that it’s a tremendous expenditure of energy when I resist life events. When I am dealing with my own fears, anxieties and desires, there is not much energy left for dealing with what’s actually happening. This resistance is a tremendous waste of energy, but if I choose to deal with each situation with acceptance, I simply allow life to unfold and interact with my energy in a natural and rational manner. The key is to just relax and release, and deal with what’s left in front of us. We do not need to worry about the rest. If we relax and release, we’ll start to feel an enormous amount of energy awaken inside of us. 

Make freedom a game

There is nothing wrong with feeling the energies of fear, jealousy, or attraction. It’s not our fault that such energies exist. All the attractions, repulsions, thoughts, and feelings don’t make any difference. They don’t make us pure or impure, but we tend to let ourselves get bothered by the little things and emotional ups and downs. This is how we make a freedom a game. Instead of getting into being bothered, we get into being free. The moment we feel our energy change, relax our shoulders and relax the area around our heart. We simply relax and release. Play with letting go and falling behind this sense of being bothered. Just decide no matter what the mind says, we aren’t getting involved. We don’t fight the mind. In fact, we don’t even try to change it. We just make a game out of relaxing in the face of its melodrama. We simply learn how to release the tendency for getting drawn into the energy. The root is where the consciousness is aware of the pull of these energies.

You are not the pain you feel

I almost cried when I read Chapter 9: Removing Your Inner Thorn. It gives me hope and power to face what I’m feeling and experiencing. No matter how much pain, loneliness and fear there are deep down, it really can go away if I look deep within myself, to the core of my being, and decide that I don’t want the weakest part of me running my life. I am the one who notices these things. My consciousness is separate and aware of these things. I want to free myself. I want to talk to people because I find them interesting, not because I’m lonely. I want to have relationships with people because I genuinely like them, not because I need for them to like me. I want to love because I truly love, not because I need to avoid my inner problems. Imagine what fun life would be if we didn’t have those inner problems going on within us. We could enjoy things, and we could get to know people instead of needing them. We could just live and experience life, instead of trying to use life to fix what’s wrong inside of us! We are capable of achieving that state. It’s never too late!

The soul is infinite

When we truly awake spiritually, we realize we are caged. We wake up and realize that we can hardly move in there. We’re constantly hitting the limits of our comfort zone. But there should be no cage. The soul is infinite. It is free to expand everywhere. It is free to experience all of life. This can only happen when we are willing to face reality and go beyond. It will be an infinite journey based upon going beyond ourselves every minute of every day for the rest of our life. If we’re truly going beyond, we are always at our limits. We’re never back in the comfort zone. As though we are always against the edge, we are constantly being pushed through it. And we realize we’ll be fine. Nothing can bother us except our edges, and now we know what to do with them. We end up loving our edges because we point our way to freedom. All we have to do is constantly relax and lean into them. Then one day, when we least except it, we fall through into the infinite. 

Mean it when you say you choose to be happy!

Chapter 15 starts with a simple question——Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? If the answer is yes, then say it without qualifying it. Say it like we really mean it. Every time a part of us begins to get unhappy, let it go. Work with it. Use affirmations or do whatever we need to do to stay open. If we are committed, nothing can stop us. No matter what happens, we can choose to enjoy the experience. Just stay happy no matter what! A person who actually remain spontaneously happy every minute of every day is going to notice the cleansing of their heart. This is because they’re not getting involved in the stuff that comes up. If we remain spontaneously happy and centered, no matter what happens, we will find God. That’s the amazing part. Yes, we will find happiness. 

Life itself is your career

I love this book because it always touches upon deep thoughts and by embracing deep truths, we start to change how we live our lives. We don’t have to change our life; we just change how we live our life. It’s not what we’re doing; it’s how much of us is doing it. Chapter 17 is about contemplating death, but the whole chapter is all about life. We learn to live when we are facing death. We learn to experience life, to take the willingness to experience life’s events. Death helps us get our life back by making us pay attention to the moment. Life belongs to death. Death is the one who comes in his own time to take life from us. Death is the landlord and we’re just the tenants. Life is not something to waste. It’s truly precious. So we should take life as our lifelong career, everything else we’re doing is just focusing on a tiny subset of life in the attempt to give life some meaning. 

This above all: to shine own self to be true

I really love the Chinese version of the book’s name —— 《清醒地活》This book expresses an independent and sincere approach to look within oneself and think about one's life with awareness. I enjoyed every moment of reading this book and I believe that’s the most a book can offer. I am grateful that I get to have this experience with this book, and I choose to be that way with every single moment of my life. It all starts and ends with honoring and respecting the moment that’s in front of me. Period.

11月共读活动