How Would You Change?

     How would your behavior and your relationships change if you had only a month left to live? People get hit with such earth-shaking news daily in physicians' offices. What happens to their now very short lives?

     Some spiral down into their worst selves - angry, bitter, anxious, etc.
     But a decent proportion rapidly evolve into their best - loving, caring, considerate, etc. They drop all their self-centeredness, and open up to everyone and everything (become allocentric & ecocentric) - in other words, they become wise AND, AS A RESULT enjoy the best quality of life they've ever experienced (post-traumatic growth). These folks typically report that their terminal diagnosis was "the best thing that ever happened" to them!

     Meanwhile, most of us behave as if we were going to live forever ie selfishly, foolishly, mindlessly. Is this rational - even from a purely selfish, quality of life perspective?

Influences & Consequences

     Consider the impact of the following influences on how you live your daily life - the actual quality of your life:
     • Hundreds of billions spent annually on advertising to compel you to buy more & more products & services you don't need
     • TV sitcoms & "reality shows" designed to titillate an audience with less than grade 6 education
     • "Shock & Awe" newsentertainment
     • All the times important people in your life failed to nurture you
     • All the times your current place of employment fails to support you in performing your work up to your professional standards

     Too many of us passively get swept along by such corrosive forces, and pay the heaviest price - a life wasted.
     Those of us who consider life to be a precious opportunity, look deeply within ourselves, find what is true, meaningful, then do our utmost to live an "undivided life" according to this internal compass.

     Mindfulness practice prevents corrosion!
     See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/03/8-week-mindfulness-ce-course-for-health.html

Sign outside a downtown Toronto pub, June 2014