The Art of Living Consciously: The Power of Awareness to Transform Everyday Life

by Nathaniel Branden

Living consciously means seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our actions, purposes, values, and goals - and behaving in accordance with that which we see and know. In The Art of Living Consciously, Dr. Nathaniel Branden takes us into new territory, exploring the actions of our minds when they are operating as our life and well-being require - and also when they are not. No other book illuminates so clearly what true mindfulness means in the workplace (what does it mean to work consciously?); in the arena of romantic love (what does it mean to love consciously?); in child-rearing (what does it mean to parent consciously?); and in the pursuit of personal development (what does it mean to participate consciously in the process of one's own evolution?). One of the book's most exciting ideas is that of "the spirituality or reason," which invites us to rethink our assumptions about both rationality and spirituality. The practice of living consciously invites us to rethink many of our beliefs about our everyday activities, about morality, about life in the Information Age, about God.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Personal Development, Spirituality, Parenting

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Nathaniel Branden was a Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer known for his work in the psychology of self-esteem. A former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand, Branden also played a prominent role in the 1960s in promoting Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. Rand and Branden split acrimoniously in 1968, after which Branden focused on developing his own psychological theories and modes of therapy.

Reviews

[Private Account · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opening a Nathaniel Branden book (for me) is like sitting down to lunch with an old friend. It's delightful and I always get some new insight but not life-changing in the way it would be for someone less familiar with his work. If you are not familiar with his work: there is no other psychologist on the planet whose work is as clear, interesting and important.

And notes for myself: Fabulous to understand that Buddha, Locke, and Marshall Rosenberg are all trying to solve the same problem (and Jesus and a million others)--what to do about human relationships. Buddha lived in the world of control. It's all he could see--either I control you and that leads to evil or you control me and that leads to evil. Exploit or be exploited. The only choice in human relationships is to be a master or a slave. Therefore the solution is to deny relationships exist. We are not separate entities. We are all the same entity. We will only ever learn to treat one another well if we believe we are all one.

Ayn Rand, Marshall Rosenberg, and John Locke are the ones who say: oooor, there's this other way of looking at the world. Instead of being masters and slaves, let's all respect one another. Let us focus our attempts to control on nature, not people. Let us treat one another with respect and then we CAN all be separate entities, we can recognize that we are not, in fact, one entity, but we do not have to try to control one another.

And then there's Plato and all of his followers who say: what's wrong with controlling people? As long as the right people are the ones in power....

Other notes:
-I felt proud while reading this book.
-I was glad that Branden brought body-awareness into his definition of conscious awareness i.e. when we are feeling healthy, energetic and vibrant things that suck wont bother us nearly as much as when we are feeling tired or sick. That is definitely one thing lacking in Rand's fiction (and now Kira Peikoff's fiction).
-I love clear definitions and I love how clearly Branden defines consciousness and any other term he is going to use.
-Mental confusion is often not real. Confused is how we act when we don't want to focus.
-When we repress we deny needs that we are having and become blind to opportunities to fill that need. When we accept our needs we become aware of ways to get them met

[Payam Dowlatyari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a student of Dr. Brandon. Like other books I have read from the author, his main focus was on self-esteem and self-confidence. He points out that our destructing behaviors are rooted in our unconscious way of living. Likewise, we can easily avoid many mistakes only by exercising to bring awareness to our actions. He introduces a technique that has been amazingly beneficial to many of his clients in decades of psychotherapy practice which is sentence completion. For example, "If I bring 5% more awareness to my profession, [and one should continue with everything that is grammatically correct as many as possible]".

[Kasper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book pushes the idea of a conscious life, that is, a life where we are in full contact with the reality of ourselves and the world. To that, add clarity of what we are pursuing and what it feels like. If that is a poor summary, it is simply because the book left me wondering deeply about many things in a way that feels like a beginning, rather than an end. It is one of the weirdest and most interesting books on self-development I have ever read: much recommended (but have patience because some of the book's parts are very strange).

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An argument to always chose consciousness over unconsciousness
Pretty compelling, influenced how I think

[Florent Diverchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nathaniel Branden, obviously, like to hear him talk.
All the chapters (except the last) could have been abstracted to the bold highlights spread in the pages. The rest is psychotherapist filling text.
About the last chapter... well this is something different. A full chapter rant against meditation, eastern philosophy, inner life and so on. A lot of WTF moments in it.
Will I ever read a second book from Nathaniel Branden? Probably not.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka ta pokazała mi nową perspektywę z jaką mogę podchodzić do życia i wyjaśniła mi wiele nurtujących mnie kwestii, nad którymi nigdy dotąd nie zdecydowałam się pochylić. Wszystko, co pisze Nathaniel Branden jest bardzo klarowne i sensowne. Dzięki jego metodzie dokanczania zdań mogę wprowadzić w praktyce świadome funkcjonowanie do mojego życia, co jest bardzo dobrym rozwiązaniem z jego strony. Uważam, że każdy, kto chciałby dowiedzieć się więcej o psychologii powinien przeczytać tę książkę.

[Maria Iliffe-Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a book for invoking deep reflection on how I live my life, I found it highly useful. Especially the sentence completion exercises. The last chapter felt like a rant against spirituality, and what the author described as spirituality did not match my own experience. Having said that, as the author suggests, it gave me pause to ponder. Whilst I didn’t agree with the author’s views in the last chapter, it is still a book I would highly recommend.

[Thomas Walker-Werth · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptionally good book that can change your life if you're willing to focus on and implement the ideas. Branden fuses his extensive experience as a psychologist with the rational philosophical principles of Objectivism to produce a powerful and highly practical guide to improving your life by bringing your mind into focus with reality - not just the reality around you, but within you as well. I will definitely be revisiting this in the future.

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب هنر هشیارانه زیستن
از یک نویسنده‌ی روان‌درمانگر که تحصیلات بالایی هم در رشته‌ی روانشناسی دارد. نویسنده مدام در حال گوشزد زدن به مخاطب است که چگونه از مسیر هشیارانه زیستن دور نشود.
اینکه آگاهانه زندگی کنیم و راه درست و هوشمندانه را هنگام مواجه شدن با مشکلات انتخاب کنیم.
کتاب بیشتر بر این تاکید دارد که هرکس بر درون خود تمرکز کند و حاشیه‌ها و موانع بیرونی را بیشتر به چالش بکشد.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are there words to describe a book that changes you on a fundamental level? I plan on rereading this book many times!

[Gerardo Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very enlightening and has an amazing chapter focused on how mysticism is incompatible with living consciously. I enjoyed this book very much.

[Vlad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This version of the law of assumption is saying that i am that i am, knock it should be open and seek and you will find so it's awereness of being and having what you already have and want to have.

[Caitlin Claunch · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I’m really unsure how to rate this book. There is certainly wisdom here. Activities are presented for how to live a more conscious life—specifically, he shares a 20 week program of completing sentence stems, which really helps to clarify intuitive knowledge, and I highly recommend doing the exercises.

What really wore on me was wading through the heteronormativity, gendered stereotypes, and libertarian ideology—particularly in the final chapter. I think it’s valuable to develop self-sufficiency, and I appreciate that capitalism has served society to a point, but his analysis grossly ignores issues of racism and other forms of oppression along with generational wealth. I appreciate hearing his argument that, in contrast to Buddhist ideology, self does exist—yet I feel he overlooks the more obvious and nuanced understanding that self both exists and doesn’t exist. Both are important.

The ideas about consciousness are helpful, as are those about increasing self esteem by acting coherently, and fairly in line with Buddhist philosophy. I will recommend the book for the sentence stem activities, but probably won’t read more of his work. A little bit of Richard Dawkins vibes :/

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helps us to focus on our inner selves and to live our lives with courage. We receive all sorts of messages every day from so many sources, it becomes difficult to focus on what is going on inside.

[Jim Ainsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read until Branden seems to confuse mysticism with Christianity and reveals a view of religion that indicates he does not truly know what Christians believe or why.