There is a saying, “Don’t react, but respond.” What does that mean and how can one practice it in daily life?

A part of ourselves serves as an autopilot, until we are conscious enough to live our life moment to moment with awareness. The greater we are in the moment, the less the autopilot is required. This autopilot is based on our past experience and our understanding based upon this past experience.

If we are not staying aware in the present moment, the autopilot will react to the events and stimuli in the world and we will be going along with how it wishes to behave.

If we stay aware/conscious, we will experience the truth of the moment more fully, to the degree of our awakeness. We will be more able to access our inner guidance, be more discerning. We will be more in tune with what is actually happening rather than experiencing the moment only from the perspective of our ego. We will be able to act more responsibly, responding to the moment directly, in tune with our inner guidance.

The more we practice staying in the moment, aware of everything in our experience, the more our capacity of responsibility will increase, the less the autopilot will have control over our lives. It simply won’t be needed (needed less and less), because we are taking charge consciously.

We will be discovering our innate sense of inner guidance as we awaken more and more through this practice of staying aware.

Practicing meditation regularly, and being meditative throughout the day will teach this skill of responsibility, and living by our inner guidance.

While practicing staying as awareness, we will experience how the autopilot arises within us, but we will be learning to go with our inner guidance deeper than the autopilot as well. It is like really looking into our life and discovering we don’t want to behave in a certain pattern any more and simultaneously creating a new kind of experience through our conscious effort.

So, live your life consciously, cultivate this second to second, day to day. Make it a priority in your life. This way your capacity of responsibility will grow and grow. Be prepared for a lot of lessons about yourself, to learn about yourself. There will be times of inner resistance while growing this way.

For additional comprehensive information:

The following articles explain what is mediation, what is staying as awareness, how to find our innate inner guidance and live our life with responsibility. The first article is a very concise/accurate explanation of meditation. The second article goes into deep topics about the breath/awareness/heart and inner guidance. The third article is a step by step guide to develop comprehensive understanding on the topic, with the guidance given and dedicated practice you can acquire great wisdom about the answer of your question (also contains the first two articles in itself)

What is meditation? How to practice meditation.

Types of Higher Self Meditation Practices

New to Higher Self Teachings? Start here.