Note: If you accidentally landed up here, I suggest you start by reading part 1 and part 2 of the series.
When I first came to the idea of the LLP framework, it seemed so obvious, but understanding that our true drive is to love, learn, and play, and recognizing the false narratives that get in the way of our doing so are merely first steps.
It is not enough to wake up to the problem. The next—and perhaps the most challenging step- is to start formulating actions.
Intentional Living: It starts with living consciously
Living a more conscious life is the first step towards truly flourishing, a step that helps not only you to experience the joy of LLP (love, learn, play), but because of our interconnectedness, can help change the world.
Living consciously changes everything. When we live consciously, we are more present in each moment, we become more mindful and intentional in our thoughts and actions. We become aware of our limits. We understand that we have limited sensory knowledge and limiting beliefs, and that we are all interconnected and not just by technology.
Fear and anxiety start to fall away when we realize that most of our fears are the result of our perceptions and that we have the power to change our perceptions. Hate, rage, and judgment can be replaced by compassion and love. The false narratives that have been ingrained in us no longer deceive us.
We become less compulsive in our actions and do not allow externalities to drive our passions. Self-judgment and even self-hatred fall away and are replaced by acceptance and striving to better ourselves.
We see others succumbing to the same fallacies and feel compassion for them. We have become aware of our evolved biases and heuristics and are able to counteract them by bringing conscious awareness to decisions that were automatic before.
The Socialized Mind and Conscious Thinking
The phrase “socialized minds” has been attributed to Robert Kegan, who built on previous research and theories that proposed five stages of mind [1]. When we possess a socialized mind, we draw our meaning, purpose, and scripts from what may be false narratives at social and national levels.
These false (meta) narratives attempt to provide a complete, homogenous story for us to follow, one that takes us in the opposite direction of our intentional core of loving, learning and playing.
The socialized mind stops us from living consciously. It limits our decision-making abilities. Instead, we basically sleepwalk through our lives, sedated by the prescriptions of society and its institutions. We live without happiness. Instead of the triple helix of loving, learning and playing as a path to flourishing, we let the false narratives and means-end inversions lead the way.
The Daily Guide to Loving, Learning, and Playing
The Universal Enlightenment Forum is currently working on a daily guide to apply the principles of the LLP framework in everyday life, based, in large part, on current best practices in psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).
You can check out our Flourishing Child Program to give your children education based on the LLP framework.
In the meantime, one of the easiest ways you can take a first step towards living the LLP mindset is to meditate.
- Mindful meditation is non-judgmental.
- It aids in releasing the false narratives and MEI I’ve spoken of earlier.
- It can help us slow down our thinking, so we have a chance to catch ourselves before we succumb to MEI or revert to following a false narrative.
- It helps us to strengthen our intentional core.
Meditation to help us stay on the LLP (Love, Learn, Play) path does not have to be sitting in a quiet room without speaking for an hour at a time, although if you can do that, I encourage you to do so.
It can also start with finding five minutes at the end of the day to just be.
Get quiet. Take a few breaths. Close your eyes and reflect upon your day. What did you do that fit into the loving, learning and playing of the LLP framework? What got in the way? What can you do differently tomorrow?
Living a more conscious life is the first step towards truly flourishing, a step that helps not only you to experience the joy of LLP, but because of our interconnectedness, can help change the world.
References:
https://medium.com/@NataliMorad/how-to-be-an-adult-kegans-theory-of-adult-development-d63f4311b553
This post is the second in a 3-part series by Akhil Gupta. Read the first part here:
Read part 1: What it means to flourish in the 21st century.
Read part 2: Barriers to love, learn, and play
About the author:
Akhilesh Gupta is the founder of theUEF Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. He previously served as senior managing director at Blackstone and held leadership roles at Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever.
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