Today on Widening Circles,
Guide a Deathbed Journey.
Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
Socrates When I wake up,
The first thing I think about is death.
While that may sound weird or even morbid,
It has been the most powerful primer of how I go through my day.
It primes me to live every day to the fullest and not waste time.
Notice what happens in your body when you hear the word death.
Is there a shuddering?
An avoidance?
A heaviness?
A fear?
Death is perhaps the biggest elephant in the room in our society.
We avoid talking about it.
We try to outrun it constantly.
It's seen as an enemy to life.
But I have come to learn how in order to fully embrace life,
We must fully embrace death.
Life truly begins when you pull a seat for death at the table.
When it comes to death,
I think we often see it as a singular event far in the distance.
But death is an ever-present force and dare I say it,
Friend,
We are dying all the time.
Two-thirds of your body alone comes and goes every two to three weeks from the turnover of water atoms.
Your skin cells die and shed every two to four weeks.
You would not be here without the continuous hand of death.
So you could say that you are more like a river than a static entity,
Constantly shaped by the forces of death and rebirth.
When you adopt this perspective,
Things make a different kind of sense.
I know that when I see myself as a fluid transient stream where things are dying all the time inside of me,
I don't get so attached to my identity or what I thought I had to do to uphold that identity.
And that leads to different kinds of actions,
Like allowing my creations to crumble.
So I wanted to bring this powerful practice to you in the form of a guided deathbed meditation.
I recommend playing this when you're lying down in a quiet space,
Maybe even when you're just waking up.
To begin,
Let's take a few deep breaths,
Allowing each breath to bring you deeper into the present moment.
Feel your thoughts and worries,
Any lingering dreams settle down like leaves falling to the ground.
Bring your mind back into your body and feel the delicious sense of homecoming that comes with this reunion.
Now,
I'd like you to close your eyes and imagine that you're lying on your deathbed in the final days before your passing.
You can see the murky outlines of your loved ones surrounding you through your old eyes that have witnessed so much.
You bring your wrinkly hands up to your face and feel in awe of how quickly the years have passed.
Life has truly felt like sand that has slipped through your fingers.
You can feel the rhythmic rise and fall of your belly with every slowing breath.
You begin to look back on your life.
What emerges forth as the most important things?
What dissolves back as things that weren't so important after all?
What memories fill you to the brim with joy?
What are you most proud of?
You look back at how your younger self is spending their days.
Is your younger self making the most out of his or her life?
What message would you give your younger self?
You smile now,
Feeling immense gratitude for the grand,
Priceless opportunity of life.
Bringing yourself back to the present now,
I invite you to hold that message from your old dying self close to your heart.
Let it permeate through your body.
Benjamin Franklin once said,
Most people die at 25,
But aren't buried until they're 75.
The sad truth is that most people never truly live.
They go to their graves with their unexpressed songs still inside of them.
While death is a painful reality of existence,
It is also the most powerful ally of life.
Greeting death is a sharp reminder to live every moment to the fullest.
How you spend today is not irrelevant to the outcome of your life.
Every day counts.
Every moment is a gift.
It's also not a guarantee that we will live a long life.
You may die this year.
You may die tomorrow.
Keeping death close at hand awakens us to stop postponing real living.
You have what it takes to live life to the fullest,
Beginning with how you live today.
You have everything you need.
It just takes a conscious choice.
Maybe this choice looks like being present today when you eat your meals.
Maybe it means putting down your phone.
Maybe it means piercing through the veil of fear and starting that project that's been calling your name.
So I ask you,
What can you do to make the most out of your day today?
Wishing you a beautiful day of true living.
