Customer Reviews

Conscious Living : Finding Joy in the Real World

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Life is an ongoing, neverending process of self-improvement and enlightenment. While we can be given the best advice and offered the most valuable lessons over and over again, it takes a readiness in ourselves, an open heart and mind and a willing spirit, to be receptive to those lessons. And, to be truly effective, we need be not only ready... but conscious of the lesson learned and applied.

A good friend who has earned my respect with her ability to maneuver through her life with serenity and acceptance, even while learning the toughest lessons, recently recommended Hendricks' books to me. I value her advice, and so I approached the Hendricks' bookshelf with high expectations. I found many books on the shelf, written by both Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, and with this volume as my introduction, I expect to be reading several more.

Hendricks has probably not told me anything in this book I don't already know. We must love ourselves before we can truly love another. Anger denied does not go away. Moving through life and its choices by default rather than thoughtful and considered decision is guaranteed to end in disaster. Choosing love partners by chemistry alone can only mean heartbreak. We get what we expect. Negativity in attitude and expectations magnetically draws to us more negativity. If your life is not what you want it to be, guess what, it's you who is at the wheel. Yes, I knew all of this.

I knew it, but I have too often failed to apply these sound, common sense lessons to my own life. I suppose there is something in all of us that feels the irresistible impulse to put our hand in the fire even when we have been told, over and over again, it will burn. Unfortunately, nothing is so effective a teacher as pain.

But by the time I picked up this book, I was ready to listen. I was, you might say, fully conscious of these wisdoms and ready and willing to apply them at last. I almost feel a little silly stating how my mood and attitude improved by just reading this book. It sounds rather simplistic, doesn't it? Then again, we humans do tend to overcomplicate our lives, don't we?

I feel confident in recommending this book to anyone... but only with this note: if you are ready to steer through your life with conscious intent, you'll love this book and its sensible advice. If you are not, if you are still looking for someone else to do the work for you, or if you prefer your old comfort zone, or if you want to shirk your responsibility for the course of your own life a while longer, well, read a comic book instead. Up to you.

As for me, I loved it. Ready and awake! I like that the responsibility for this adventure is all mine.

Over the last few years, I have read an assortment of relationship books with loads of great strategies that combat a wide array of issues. When I encountered the book "Conscious Loving" by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, I was amazed by how different the book was. Gay and Kathlyn were communicating at a more fundamental level that bridged the gap between examples and strategies.

When "Conscious Living" came out, I eagerly pounced on it to see how much more I could piece together. On my first pass through the book, I was deeply moved by the quantity and depth of "aha, that's why" connections I was making with my life and my prior readings. This book did not disappoint me since it was working at the fundamental building block level that I first encountered with "Conscious Loving". After reading the book for the third time, I'm still in awe at how much clarity Gay brings to the journey of life. If I had to sum it up, I would have to say that I was left smiling at the profound beauty of life. I was also pleasantly surprised and deeply moved by the spiritual connections I made through reading the book.

The book follows a natural progression where Gay takes you from a great personal and historic introduction through the five required lessons followed by the inner shifts and outer moves that create a conscious life. The second half of the book deals with conscious solutions to some of the most crucial areas of real world life. I found the book to be chock-full of interesting examples and inspiring snippets of wisdom. One of my favorite snippets was "We argue for our limitations, and, sure enough, we get to keep them."

I have read several of Gay Hendricks books and each is a masterpiece. He surprises me every time by having so much to offer. Reading 'Conscious Living' is an enlightening experience. What touched me deeply is its simple profundity.

Its evident that Gay writes from a depth of authentic experience. He blends the sublime with the practical, the mystical with the earthy, the miraculous with the ordinary. I am confident that this book will become a landmark in the human evolution to embrace its own divinity in ways that are magical.

As I read it, I was in an inspired space to act out of integrity in ways that create enduring change towards greater inner joy & success in the outer world.

In his book "Conscious Living" Gay Hendricks masterfully takes the reader to a profound realization of the most basic lessons in living. With so many self help books available it is sometimes difficult to know where to focus one's attention and how to proceed along the path of self transformation. Gay Hendricks has an uncanny ability to light the way and often in a humorous and inspiring manner. His insights and practical applications do not leave the reader stranded in an intellectual quagmire with nothing solid to stand on. Instead, he offers solid information that will take, those of us inspired to do so, deep into the realities of our own existence. Gay repeatedly offers opportunities for the reader to commit to an empowered and exciting life where relationships can flourish, creativity abounds and self exploration becomes an adventure spawned by curiosity encased in wonder and vitality.

This is a life-changing book. It's a book that helped me assess my life and determine what I want for myself. On top of that I would be willing to say that it helped me to know how to attain what I want. Not in a "how-to" kind of way; more in a creative visualization kind of way. This is a book that I will keep forever, and one that I see myself referencing from time to time throughout my life.

The first book is an excellent year long "exercise" and I enjoyed every page.
This is the 2nd book in the series and I am looking forward to january 2011 to begin the process again. i learned a lot and the material is excellent!

One of my top 10 for sure. You cannot create the life you want untill you understand why and how you have created the life you are currently experiencing. Gay Hendricks invites you to examine your life and outlines clear choices and commitments that are necessary to create the life you want. Thanks Gay you have changed my life.

I chose this book as my selection for the book club I'm part of. I love Gay Hendricks because of the information he provides and in the way he delivers this information. Reading his books is like listening to him as he's having a special conversation with just you. Contains lot's of interesting information. Material is to be tried out and felt, rather than just studied and analyzed.

Gay Hendricks writes a wonderful book about overcoming the incidental stains of life to transform into something greater, and in doing so he learns to love himself and to become conscious.

This book wanders through Hendricks' life with many tales of human triumph, but they are all personal; they belong to Hendricks, and he does little to offer practical ways for others to take on his concepts. It's all, "'I' did this" and "'I' did that" as if one should be him in order to become themselves. Does anyone get the irony of that?

Let me put it another way; Hendricks delivers a message to people who are scrambling for hope, who are addicted to walking along with the sheep, but because Hendricks is very likely not "conscious" of this (probably because he has become too conscious of himself), his ideas will likely cause more harm than health through the unsuspecting reader actually believing they are discovering themselves, when in fact, they are discovering how to become Gay Hendricks.

Hendricks states early in his book something to do with his connection to the whole, that we are all one in this universe, or something of that nature. Sadly though, he then disappears into his own little wonderful world (where nothing ever seems to go wrong anymore) and then fraudulently declares it to be available to every one else.

Life isn't like that, at least not for most of us, and conscious living is not about self-gain or self-improvement as Hendricks subtly suggests. It's about being aware, it's about knowing that supermarket chains have a monopoly on food supply and that human beings are having their rights violated and that fossil fuels are destroying the atmosphere, realising that there is little one can do to change that, yet still acting with awareness and a conscience in order to slowly bring about the change one desires, which means being patient, so patient in fact that the change might not even be noticed within one's lifetime. Apply this to any other problems that exist in society and one might have a better picture of what it means to live consciously.

There is nothing wrong with chasing your dreams, but chase yours, not those of Hendricks', otherwise we might one day all drown in a sea of self-perpetuated and deluded abundance.

Didn't like this book at all. It took me a half a dozen tried to convince myself to read past the 1st chapter. I did not find much of anything that I felt was new or insightful in this book. I kept reading since so many people seem to tout the author, but I found the the latter portion of this book to be even worse than the first part. It seemed weak, contrived and like the author was just wrapping it up-writing what he thought people wanted to read. I know many people have found it to be wonderful and I hope it works for them-I just though I'd share another point of view.