Reams are written about Near Death Experiences, but what of Full Life Experiences? Aren't they more relevant? As Father Anthony de Mello commented, “Most people live asleep, marry asleep, breed children in their sleep and die in their sleep without ever waking up, never understanding the loveliness of existence.”
Ah no, let's awaken to this abundant loveliness. Let a cool, fresh, new Spring — a season of realisation — pulse through our being and make the anxiety in our gut sing gusty songs of positivity. Let's throw away depression's blinkers to gaze at the wonderful beauty and beneficence all around us. Think and express only quality thoughts.
Examples: When your work is rejected, breathe, “Thank God, I can start afresh.”
After watching a performance, send silent gratitude to each member of the cast, “Thank you for the beautiful moments.” The two words ‘thank you' are powerful awakeners.
If we need to change our negative thinking to positive, abusive habits to useful, sedentary lifestyle to active, for God's sake, let's change without hesitation. As for our elders who stay the course through a severe illness, let's not get irritated with their demands, but irrigate them with tender, loving care, heartfelt prayers, exalting energies to recover and return to being their earlier endearing selves. Let's look within ourselves and listen deeply to the New Year message of a dynamic new life ringing out a robust, “Don't wait forever to get well to follow your dream, be well now and follow it.”
Procrastination, postponement, delays and the ensuing annoyance and frustration stiffen the knees, which are our psychosomatic crossroads in progress, or inflame the throat, our psycho-emotional pathway. As Joseph Addison says, “The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” The two positives about near-death experience:
You lose all fear of dying.
You don't just see the peace in death, you see with awakened, wiser eyes the peace, the possibilities, the fullness of life. Can we get all that without dying? A thousand times, yes! Just make a ‘be-line' towards elevated consciousness.
Be well. Know this: as long as we are in harmony in body, mind, spirit, our intelligence remains crystal clear and we live in full bloom. There's a wellness managed beautifully from the total absence of any illness — a state coveted by all. Then there's a special wellness that I witnessed in my mother. When anybody enquired, “How are you?” she replied cheerfully, “Absolutely fine in my life and healthy in my being.” She was a stroke patient, paralysed on one side. She taught by serene, smiling example that even with a physical disability, you can enable yourself to be whole in your harmony.
Be active. Walk/cycle to streamline all the power of the body to work in ease with the force of life continually streaming through it. And don't go automatic in other activities. Pay attention to waking, eating, talking, working, answering the phone, walking the dog… Be ‘cre-active' — where all activities become creative expressions of the mysterious power in you. Similarly, make every relationship an act of love and kindness. Then joy, not tedium becomes your companion.
Be content. A wealthy businessman told his doctor that before his cancer, he'd want “the cookie” of everything going his way. If it didn't, “life wasn't worth a damn”. But cancer gave him a wider perspective. Now he's happy whether his business goes well or not, whether he wins or loses at golf. He realises that life is The Cookie. He's content… and free of cancer. I've observed: discontented people are always trying to have something they don't have, trying to be someone they are not, trying to do things they cannot do. They are always falling ill. I've learnt that when we don't strive to fit some fanciful self-image but surrender humbly to our true self, we flow joyously in the fullness of life. Contentment is strength, is fearlessness.
Be ego-free. Please understand, the ego is a terrible but efficient builder. It constructs old grudges, past fears, hurtful memories that become a foundation of our thinking. Ignorantly, we power its construct by living by it until those shifting sands of negativity make us waspish, drain energy, burn holes in our immune system. We are assailed by eye problems because we seem incapable of seeing what we are doing to ourselves. The only way to harmony and health is to: let… go! Tell the ego firmly, “I'm not listening to you.” Every time it twinges, have this powerful affirmation ready: “May only purity, power and goodness reside in me.” Repeat until you experience lightness, openness, freedom, joy.
Be loving. Spend time alone in loving silence and rejuvenate your frayed nerves. Use your imagination to draw only loving pictures of everybody and everything bathed in bright healing light. And know that somewhere a wound will heal, an ache will fade, a heart will mend… This is the loveliness of existence.
The writer is co-author of the book Fitness for Life.