Meditating on Your Death Could Make You Happier.

Taking a few moments a day to contemplate the inevitability of every single person's death as well as our own is a way to generate more energy for ourselves to live our lives more fully and completely. It's a gentle way to befriend what scares us, and in doing so we make friends with all the players of our shadow selves - our anxieties and worries, judgements and jealousies. You know who I’m talking about.

Just making the phrase “I may die today” a part of your repertoire is surprisingly liberating. Of the billions of people on the planet right now, no-one is getting out alive, and while we may hope that the end is decades away, it could be way sooner. Just this past month I almost stepped in front of a bus until my guardian angel tapped me on shoulder and suggested I look left. Sound familiar? We had the boiler serviced last week in preparation for winter and discovered the hot water tank was in danger of collapse which would have sent gas into the house. Again another averted early demise.

What else happens with these remembrances of death? The arising of spontaneous gratitude for our lives. What we may have been grumbling about five minutes earlier, is now a cause for celebration. I may die today, a positive upward spiral of consciousness begins. Gratitude, motivation to be happy, to smile, to be kind.

I wish you all a Happy Halloween, and if you are in New York tomorrow November 1, I invite you to my annual Day of the Dead Yoga workshop at Integral Yoga Institute 6.30pm - 8.30pm. Bring a photo or moments of someone who has passed. We create a shrine and dedicate the class to our dearly departed. We will practice asana focusing on releasing and letting go mixed in with story telling and guided meditations around death. I suggest booking ahead, as we sold out last year.

https://iyiny.org/workshops-and-events/calendar/day-of-the-10442/

Enjoy your day everyone, it may be your last!