Lately there seems to be a focus on living or not living around me. A client mysteriously dies when her husband is at home. A friend of my wife kills himself leaving behind a three-ring binder of plans to help deal with his death. A co-worker says she doesn’t want to live that long because she feels too much chronic pain. What is this life we are living about anyway?
This feels sometimes like it is too big of a question for anyone to tackle. Yet I must seek clarity because I realize there is so little any of us knows for sure about the afterlife other than speculation and a variety of belief systems.
There is however some interesting findings from those who have had near death experiences. These near-death returnees have been researched, which has provided some fascinating information. Cross culturally all those who were interviewed about having an experience of dying and coming back have reported they were asked generally these two questions while in the light of being out of their bodies:
What did you learn about love?
What have you done to make the world a better place?
These two questions make me think that every life is precious and that those who commit suicide or want to die seem to have lost touch with some key aspects of life. Connection to our heart is missing when a person wants to check out from life. The other important missing piece is the lack of knowing or living our mission or purpose. If we are not taking our life forward, living with purpose then we need to take the time to realign ourselves with why we are here in this life.
Suicide is an angry act and a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It seems like checking out because a person cannot deal with the struggles they are having. There is no judgment here about those who make that choice but it does seem sad they felt unable to cope and didn’t have the support they needed?
Over the years, I have talked a number of people out of suicide and most wanted someone to care because they forgot how to or never learned to care for themselves. This blockage of the heart towards oneself is a sad situation but there are remedies for this condition. Counseling, friends, healthier beliefs, exploring your spiritual life, having a pet, mindfulness, and other techniques and ways of life can help us find more reason to keep on living.
Each of us came with a unique purpose that only we can fulfill. We come fully equipped to succeed if we listen to our own inner guidance system of feelings, intuition, gut instincts etc. There is something we are here to do that will make the world a better place and if we don’t do what we have been given to do the entire planet misses out.
Please tune into this: If your find yourself out of touch with your heart or unclear about your purpose, it is time to quit ignoring your inner guidance and live more according to the wisdom of your heart and spirit.