From the Monastery to the Meeting Room: Don Johnson’s Guide to Conscious Living for Real Women

Living a Conscious Life: How to Find Peace, Wholeness and Freedom in a Chaotic World

Living a Conscious Life: How to Find Peace, Wholeness and Freedom in a Chaotic World offers profound, prescriptive advice with a practical footing across a wide expanse of human experience. Grounded yet uplifting, factual yet inspiring, it can be considered a “user’s manual for human beings”in its broad reach of topics, its depth of meaningful insights, and the transformation it brings to its readers.

Available in Paperback and Kindle edition.

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It’s Monday morning again. Your alarm goes off at 5.30am, there’s already a string of emails marked urgent, and you’ve got that familiar knot in your stomach before your feet even hit the floor. You’re successful, you’re capable, you’re ticking off every box society expects of a modern woman – yet something feels hollow. Living a Conscious Life by Don Johnson doesn’t promise miracle cures, but it offers something rarer: companionship from someone who’s navigated both spiritual depths and corporate pressures.

The Unlikely Journey from Robes to Business Suits

Don Johnson’s path reads like a modern parable. After university, he spent ten years as a Hindu monk living in ashrams across North America, Europe, Africa and Australia, teaching meditation and pursuing spiritual awakening. Then came the sharp turn: leaving monastic life for marriage, family and a thirty-year corporate career that took him to vice president of sales and principal consultant roles with companies like Google, Microsoft and YouTube.

It’s this unlikely combination – someone who’s worn both robes and power suits – that makes Johnson’s perspective particularly relevant for women juggling competing demands. He understands the pull between meaning-seeking and deadline-meeting, between inner peace and outer achievement. Most importantly, he’s lived the reality that you don’t have to ask yourself whose story this is – you can write your own.

Why This Book Resonates Right Now

Women’s lives have never felt more packed or pulled in different directions. Recent trends in spiritual literature show increasing demand for books that offer genuine practical wisdom rather than surface-level wellness platitudes. We’re tired of being told to meditate our way out of systemic pressures or manifest our way through real challenges.

This is where Johnson’s work hits differently. As Lisa Earle McLeod, bestselling author of Selling with Noble Purpose, explains: the book provides ‘an easy-to-follow framework for living a more intentional life…gives you the tools to take control of your holistic destiny.’ Carolyn Taylor, author of Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success, calls it ‘a wonderful, practical companion to a path of personal growth.’

The book has recently been named a Silver Winner in the 2025 Nautilus Book Awards, placing Johnson among authors like Brené Brown and Thich Nhat Hanh who champion conscious living and positive social change.

Practical Wisdom Without the Jargon

What makes Living a Conscious Life particularly appealing to readers is its grounded approach. This isn’t about retreating to a mountain cave – it’s about making dinner in a noisy house while staying present, handling difficult conversations with grace, or maintaining your centre during back-to-back meetings.

David Gerken, meditation teacher and former writer for The West Wing television series, captures the book’s relevance: ‘With the world where it is today, nothing is more critical than becoming more conscious. Don Johnson’s beautifully written book will help people do just that.’

Johnson writes with what readers describe as refreshing honesty about his own struggles and failures. Amazon reviewers consistently mention his ‘self-deprecating, conversational style’ and how the book feels ‘more like a friend sharing insights gained from a life well-lived.’

The Person Behind the Wisdom

Today, Don Johnson lives near St. Andrews, Scotland, with his wife, continuing to work as an executive coach through his Integria Group consultancy. He’s a top writer on Medium.com, where he shares stories and lessons with over 15,000 followers, and hosts the ‘Living a Conscious Life’ podcast.

For more information, visit www.bemoreconscious.com

What comes through from interviews and his writing is someone refreshingly un-guru-like. He’s candid about his missteps, including his time in what he now recognises was a cult-like spiritual organisation. This honesty makes his advice feel trustworthy rather than preachy – he’s not speaking from a pedestal but from hard-won experience. As spiritual principles increasingly shape leadership, his balanced perspective feels particularly valuable.

Is This Book Right for You?

Women readers on Goodreads consistently praise the book’s compassionate tone and practical tools. They appreciate Johnson’s guidance on ‘breaking generational patterns, cultivating mindfulness, and staying true to one’s roots.’ Many mention feeling empowered by its approach to navigating life’s challenges ‘with mindfulness and grace.’

If you’re looking for something that’s honest and useful rather than prescriptive, if you want spiritual principles that integrate with real life rather than require you to escape from it, this book might be worth your time. The fact that it’s structured as fifty-one brief articles makes it easy to read in manageable pieces – perfect for busy lives where time feels like a luxury.

Finding Peace in the Chaos

Sometimes the most helpful voices are those who’ve faced both chaos and calm, who understand the corporate world and the contemplative life. Johnson’s book offers a rare combination: spiritual depth without the fluff, practical tools without the oversimplification.

Whether you pick up the book, listen to his podcast, or read his Medium articles, Johnson offers what many of us need: a steady hand to hold as we navigate the beautiful complexity of modern life. His approach recognises that activating success isn’t just about career achievements – it’s about finding your inner compass and staying true to it, even when the world rarely slows down.