Conscious Coliving 101 — Day 1
Day 1: Conscious Coliving 101
Part of the free course Conscious Coliving 101. Prefer it paced? Get it by email — one lesson a day.
Dear conscious human,
Today is an inspiring day, it is the first day of Conscious Coliving 101!
Before we jump in we’re going to dedicate this entire lesson to set the premise and take you on a journey through the lands of individualism and capitalism. Don’t worry, we’re keeping it light hearted and end on a high note!
You might be wondering why we’re doing this. What does it have to do with conscious coliving? In fact, it has everything to do with conscious coliving.
Read on to find out.
This new world … What is actually happening?
It probably seems obvious if we were to say the world is changing, and with it there is a need for us to change too. But how, and in what ways? What has instigated this need for change?
If you’ve done our Diginomics 101 course, you’ll know that we talk about how our economy has moved from a legacy (a physical) economy, to a digital one. Examples of a new paradigm like this one are popping up all over the shop.
These paradigmatic shifts have created a yearning for a new way to navigate and interact with our world, our environments, our communities and ourselves.
If you’re anything like us, you’ll want to experience a way that is more conscious, more connected, and more real. But why are we feeling the opposite of this right now? Let’s find out.
The American Dream has crumbled 🥧
Choose the house, the family, the job, the hobbies, the simplicity, the security, the over productive weekends, the caffeine, the cookie-cutter experience, the burnout, the anxiety. Choose climate change, economic downfall, deadly pandemics and puppet politicians. And then you know you’ve made it…
Let’s face it, that did not work (for most people).
Yes, the American Dream held so much promise and potential for people at the time, but just like legacy money, society is outgrowing this ideal. And now, we are left picking up the pieces of a broken society.
Yet, life is still being sold to us as something that can and should be easy, simple, secular, not the messy, chaotic, full of the disappointments and adventures that this thing called life actually holds.
It’s clear that things have changed drastically and yet we are still holding on, sometimes unconsciously, to the idea of the American Dream. The belief, the desire to have it all and more for less; less work, less effort, less expense, and it is this that has tripped us up.
I want more time, money and energy
Whether we like it or not, and contrary to popular narrative, the relationship between time, money and energy is and always has been a precarious balancing act.
We’ve all been in the situation where if we have two of the three functioning well, the third is usually extremely depleted, or the one that we are missing the most.
This isn’t really a new idea, the intricate relationship between the three has always been at play, except now it’s different and other invisible forces are draining the surplus that was previously available.
You see the trifecta of time, money and energy always stays the same and these can easily be balanced, but modern day society has a bunch of non-things disguised as useful things which sap the surplus out of us. For example:\
- Scrolling on socials
- Overworking during the weekday
- Binging on the weekend
- Consuming pointless goods for no reason
You could argue that previous generations had to deal with other “surplus sappers”, but these 5 trends (ingredients 🥧) demonstrate that we’re being seriously SAPPED more than ever before.
5 ingredients for American Dream Crumble
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🥧 Ingredient #1: The rise of individualism
Over the last 150 years, there has been a rise in individualism. Most recently, as the demand of work in the western world shifted from manual labor to white collar jobs, the opportunity to gain an education, accumulate wealth, to live more independently away from the family unit and with more freedom of choice, and the opportunity to focus on ‘enjoying the good life’, we shifted more and more towards individualism.
On the surface this seems great, and those who were at the beginning of this movement have and probably did benefit greatly from it, otherwise it wouldn’t have spread out to infect us all in the way it has. But its impact is being felt now more than ever, and the current and the next generation are losing out because of it, all still trying to do it on their own, despite evidence that shows this way of life isn’t working.
🥧 Ingredient #2: The loneliness pandemic underpins the mental health crisis
Despite more opportunity for social connections we feel lonelier than ever, with loneliness being noted as both a cause and an exacerbating factor in many mental health issues.
Loneliness affects not only our mental health, but our physical health too, reducing our bodies immune system and brain function which contributes to more illness and slower rates of recovery from existing illnesses.
Thirdly, whilst covid-19 brought into our lives, amongst many other things, a new sense of isolation, it really only shone a light on what was already there - the separateness of our existence.
🥧 Ingredient #3: Being priced out of owning property
With the rise in housing costs, people are being priced out of not only owning properties but also renting them. This is especially prevalent in cities, despite people working in full-time positions. As the cost of housing, and living increases, the average wage is simply not meeting the demands of life. This is prompting people to move away from cities into suburban and rural areas. The problem with this is that this often means wages decrease as jobs change, or time, money and energy is lost on commuting.
🥧 Ingredient #4: The family unit has fallen apart
The role of the family unit has changed, some might even consider it to have failed. As individualism increases, and younger generations are forced to move further away to get on to the property ladder, coupled with continued changes in the economic structure, less family run businesses existing, and less and less connection and support provided by dispersed family units, people are left with a void they are now desperate to fill. Unfortunately, this void is often filled with unhealthy coping mechanisms further impacting our mental and physical health.
🥧 Ingredient #5: We've overdone the carrying capacity, yet we're still consuming, extracting resources, destroying the soil, creating toxins…
The world is at a breaking point, yet we still over consume, we still continue to use and we still are too slow in changing our ways. But the fact is we need to, it is no longer a request but a requirement. What would have previously been a community problem, has become another one that each individual attempts to tackle (or avoid) alone.
But, it doesn't have to be this way… the flip side of this coin is that we now live in a time where there are even greater opportunities to change this… we just need to be conscious about it.
A new recipe - the 5 opportunities available to us
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🍰 Opportunity #1: People are craving connection more than ever (aka you are not alone!)
Despite feeling alone, you aren’t. There are actually many ‘you’s’ out there, fellow beings craving connection and contribution to something bigger than themselves. This presents many opportunities to get involved with new groups of like minded people, to connect with totally new ways of being, discover new interests and even become the catalyst that brings more people together.
🍰 Opportunity #2: People are living longer
Which means that marriage, and children are happening later in life. This provides many of us with the opportunity of time to try out different experiences and alternative ways of living. An opportunity to get off the hamster wheel and to experience something new, that might help inform your future choices and ways of living. So, if you find that this resonates and you’re not sure what to do with all your extra time, might we suggest you try some conscious coliving experiences?
🍰 Opportunity #3: People are looking for less material things and more freedom to be
The minimalist movement has been a fundamental part of providing people with an alternative way to exist in the world. Often positioned in direct opposition to consumerism, although it promotes having less material possessions, its premise is on gaining more freedom by removing the unnecessary excess. Removing the excess brings us the freedom to experience more time, more energy and more money that we can then consciously choose to invest in the areas of our lives that are truly important to us. Conscious coliving helps you to gain more by living with less.
🍰 Opportunity #4: The future of work: going remote means location isn't a big issue anymore
The recent pandemic helped to embed remote working as more than an ideal but a way of life that is here to stay. A way that research has discovered helps people to feel happier. This shift to more remote working, also supports our earlier opportunity #2. With more flexible working available the opportunity to explore more alternative ways of living and traveling, that can include conscious coliving set ups, has opened up as the restriction of having to remain in a static location for work has been removed. The world is now literally ours to explore.
🍰 Opportunity #5: Access to techniques and practices for inner development is greater than ever
You can’t blink without there being a new app, book, course, or in-person workshop to support you with some aspect of your inner development. Information is accessible in a way it has never been before, and the recent rise in popularity towards self development means we really have no excuse. If we want to change, develop, live better, weller, different and truly embody our fullest potential, now really is the time, and conscious coliving can support this.
Today, we’ve covered a lot! Hopefully, you’ve been able to see how choosing to embrace the opportunities can help to whip up a better recipe for the future.
Conscious coliving is about embracing these opportunities, co-creating a different narrative (American Dream 2.0?) and taking back our SAP!
⏩ Next up, we're going to tell you more about what conscious coliving is, the reality, the myths and the OMGs.
Lauren
Life Itself Legend\