I would like to share something important, personal and life-changing with you. I believe it will benefit you, and more than likely change the way you think. It will help you work out your priorities in life and know where your joy is.
A long time ago I came up with a kind of meditation, something that changed my life.
You could say, I taught myself mindfulness before it was even a thing. It is something I do now without even thinking about it.
But the other night, well I guess it was more morning because I was beginning to wake it, something told me to share it with you. I’m not sure whether it was something in the dream or my conscience telling me to stop keeping it to myself. But whatever it was, it was insistent.
I am a big believer in everything happens for a reason, so if something is telling me to share this, it is because someone NEEDS to hear it. Maybe it’s you.
So now I will share it, then I will explain how it has changed my life.
Disclaimer: If you aren’t religious (I’m not really), just go with it please, you will see why.
“Imagine you have lived a wonderful full life, and you are now at the pearly gates of heaven. There an angel standing in front of it. You are walking slowly towards it. Feeling everything in that moment. The angel meets you halfway and starts talking to you.
“Welcome, you’ve made it. What a wonderful life you have lived. Now I need to explain the requirements of entering the afterlife.”
Worried, you look at them. Requirements? If this is heaven, maybe you aren’t going to make it in.
The angel sees your confusion and quickly says, “Oh don’t worry. You will be going through the gates; you just have something to decide first. And it’s really important. You need to choose one moment from your life, one where you felt the best, happiest, and most content. This moment will be your ever after, your eternity. That feeling you felt, will be your heaven. You get to live in that one moment forever.”
Your mind starts going a mile a minute, playing back all of the bits of your life.
The angel interrupts, “Wait, wait, before you decide, there is a rule. Whatever your moment is, there are no consequences of that moment. For example, if your moment is skydiving but you later crashed, you will only remember the feeling of the skydiving, not the result of it.”
You are amazed but know that you must choose wisely, you have so many questions but just nod back at the angel. Looking around you see a lot of people standing around.
“The people you see are taking their time to decide on their moment. When you have picked one, and are sure, come and see me.”
You see a big tree in the distance and make your way over to it. To ponder you life and pick what feeling, emotion, moment from your life you want to experience forever.
When I first came up with this, and you have my permission to change it as you need, I wondered what I would choose as my moment.
The first moment I chose, was when I first got on my jet ski and flew over the waves on Jervis Bay. It was pure excitement and freedom. I felt like I could live in that feeling forever.
Another time I decided on a moment was on my honeymoon and we were in a long taxi ride to an adventure in Fiji. The moment was full of love for my new husband, contentment, and excitement for the future. I knew this was a feeling I could be in forever.
And just the other week, another moment struck me. Not really exciting though but heartwarming. My daughter was not feeling well and all she wanted was cuddles on the lounge with her mum. It filled me with love.
All these moments had something unique and magical about them. And they are a huge reflection about what I valued in my life at each stage.
If I died today, would I pick the jet skiing moment, knowing that I then wouldn’t remember the family and love I would later have?
This challenging meditation makes me able to see and appreciate every moment that I cherish in my life.
It’s funny because I have never shared this with anyone. But it has changed so much the way I view my life.
You can even look and analyse the moment, and work out why you chose that one. Is it because you were free, in love, comfortable, or in nature. And whatever it is, can you invite more of that into your life right now?
And make more of those moment happen?
So when your time here is finished, at the end it will be joyfully hard to choose which moment was the best.