What Does Conscious Mean?

Conscious means having an awareness of one's inner and outer worlds; that is being mentally and emotionally perceptive, awake, and mindful. Yes, despite the protests from some, emotions are very real and important to our consciousness. See what Daniel Goleman has to say about this point.

Generally, when we concern ourselves with communities, we focus attention on outer realities. We concern ourselves with the physical or material dimension of communities, including downtown areas, neighborhoods, business areas, etc. We concern ourselves with what happens at the local community center or city hall. That's understandable, but not enough.

We also need to give attention to the inner realities of the people who live, work and play in communities. This is where our ideas, feelings, perceptions, desires, and so much more reside. These inner realities are what we bring forth into the outer world of community. Inner realities are very powerful and need much greater recognition as we work on conscious community-building.

And folks, it's more than marketing. So many times people reduce the inner reality dimension in these discussions to what type of marketing strategy a community should adopt to shape perceptions about the community. That is not the idea here! Most marketing is dishonest, manipulative, disingenuous, and it does a disservice to the human experience. Don't go there.

That being said, I see two interrelated challenges that must be met:

• Build more conscious communities that create an environment in which greater consciousness can grow in citizens, business executives and owners, elected officials, public servants, educators, religious leaders, artists and creative types, and other stakeholders.
• Develop more conscious people that can work together in giving birth to more conscious communities. Perhaps we should work on creating more conscious leaders! These conscious people must possess great self-awareness, as well as awareness of others. Self-awareness is almost always a prerequisite to other-awareness. As Plato reminds us "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The question is how do we tackle these twin challenges. Here are a few starting thoughts:

• Create experiences allowing people to expand their consciousness of what a community is all about. This is more than telling them about this or that in the community. People need to experience the community first-hand through visits, meetings, conversations, and other vehicles. They need multi-sensory experiences that engage all of the senses, not just our visual sense. People need to develop a sense of place and also here. Getting a sense of the power of place is also important. Also try this power of place website.
• Create experiences allowing people to increase their self-awareness and other-awareness in communities. What mental images do people have about themselves, others, and the community in an overall sense? Guided imagery is a powerful technique in helping people gain this awareness.

These are two starting points. What are your ideas? I would enjoy hearing them.