Life and Death in Every Moment

Category: Personal Development for Adults

What is life? What is death? One way to understand life is as the sum of every breath we take while we inhabit this body. Death is simply the end of our breathing, when the body returns to earth and dust.

That does not sound especially frightening. What is far more troubling is when living people feel lifeless within. The body walks, yet the soul perceives no joy. It is as if they are imprisoned by their own limits and their view of life.

Every thought, decision, and action moves us toward life or toward death, if we define life and death as the measure of inner vitality, joy, and fulfillment. At every moment we can choose life or death.

Picture two versions of your weekend. In one version you repeat the same routine you have lived a hundred times. You sleep longer because the week has worn you down, then you prepare lunch, tidy up, perhaps a friend drops by or you watch a series on television, or you finish tasks you could not complete during the week. You repeat this weekend after weekend while telling yourself that next weekend you will finally do something new, yet that weekend never arrives.

In the second version you wake up and set off for somewhere entirely new. It need not be far or expensive. That fresh stimulus awakens your inner being. You have never been there, it is new, and both your spirit and your body receive an invigorating impulse that rouses them. You feel more alive. The unknown can be a little intimidating, since it can trigger uncertainty, yet it also stirs excitement. How extraordinary it feels to do the very thing that frightens you. Step into your fear. Once you move through it and meet it face to face, it melts away and you feel joy and release.

Consider the simplest scene. Coffee spills on your new trousers. Do you choose life or death? Do you declare it a bad event and feel miserable, or do you choose life, smile at the "airborne coffee", and move on?

Consider two options. Your old job has felt heavy and dull for some time. There is no inspiration, although your colleagues are fine and the salary is decent, so you say to yourself that it is not so bad and that many would be grateful to have what you have. Now imagine the excitement you feel about the venture you would like to start on your own. When you think about it, you sense inner fire, joy, and enthusiasm. Ideas come to you, and everything about that work seems engaging.

Then you choose. Remain half alive, or take the first steps with faith toward your desire, even if those around you say that you are not in your right mind and insist that times are hard and you are safer as you are.

Yet you do not wish to be safer and deader. You wish to trust yourself and life, and to be more joyful.

Every moment and every decision shapes our life. From what we eat, what we think, how we act, whom we spend time with, what we read or watch on television, and whether we care for our health or not, we keep making small yet important choices that ultimately create our life and define who we are.

Each time we choose what stirs inner joy and excitement, we choose life and our energy rises. Although excitement can be accompanied by fear because we are entering uncharted territory, this is positive excitement, and we become more alive and alert.

If we constantly choose only what feels safe, our life force and confidence will gradually decline, and we will feel less vitality, joy, and excitement. We will drift in the illusion of safety and slowly fade without ever touching a true connection with life.

Every moment you choose life or death. Once you leave this body, such choices will no longer arise. You will not need to worry about work, safety, or spilled coffee. What will remain is what you lived, with more or less joy. So what do you have to lose? Choose life and feel joy in every cell.