We all carry a lot of unfinished business along with us all the time. The more we accept death, the more in the moment we are. Accepting death is possible, for it makes us reject the parts of us not living in the moment. That is a spiritual gift. If you looked at your life imagining you are going to die soon, unimportant things would fall from your character. Just do the following things and allow your imagination to be real to you.
• Sit and become deeply relaxed. The deeper you go, death is more than an idea to you.
• Imagine a realistic situation that brings you closer to death.
• Identify people, work situations and philosophical questions that are incomplete within you.
• Realize that a conscious approach to death completes your unfinished business, so death is simply the next step for you in life. Make your breath flow easily and smoothly. Your mind becomes empty the closer you get to death and leaves you with an Easy Breath.
• Here is a technique that teaches you The Easy Breath; Take 3 deep breaths and stop breathing after the third one. If you are relaxed, the Wisdom of your Body breathes you. Notice how easy that breath flows through you; that is The Easy Breath.
• Now imagine the unfinished business you have and ask yourself “Do I want to hold onto this as my last possession?”
• Go deep again and breathe the Easy Breath. Let this experience sink deep into you.
When you return to your normal state of mind, be grateful for the experience you just had. Capture this experience in a trigger (a word or a phrase). Say that trigger whenever you deal with that unfinished business. This doesn’t complete your unfinished business; it just puts you in the best state of mind to work on it.
For instance if you owe money, you still owe it, but working on completing this unfinished business from a conscious state of mind makes it much easier to deal with. The same is true for unfinished business with another person. In other words, you still have to work on it, but from a conscious state of mind.
There is no reason you have to carry your unfinished business around with you as a weight around your neck. Complete it while being more conscious. There is no magic in life; get to the point where you face death consciously and watch the unimportant burdens fall away. Facing death consciously can be a new beginning for you. Just trust your deepest wisdom to change you and don’t resist. You will be more conscious in the moment.
Marc Lerner has been a life skills coach for 34 years and has been working to empower patient participation, to improve the quality of life and to improve attitudes when facing challenges. Marc has had multiple sclerosis since 1981. He learned most about death when he was in Hospice for 3 months. He had to tap inner resources to cope with his illness because he could not rely completely on help from medical professionals. Now, Marc teaches life skills, including ways to develop a positive self-image, confidence and self-trust. In 1982, Marc founded Life Skills Institute and served as its president to 2013. Through the Institute, he worked for 25 years at the VA with veterans with PTSD, cancer and AIDS patients and the mentally ill homeless. In 2002, Marc was named Outstanding American with Disabilities Business Person in Los Angeles.
He is the author of A Healthy Way to be Sick, The Positive Self, Change Your Self-Image and You Change Your Life, The End A Creative Way to Approach Death and A Poetic View of Hospice all available on Amazon/Kindle. In these books and in his work, he helps people to interpret their struggle in a conscious way. His writing teaches these skills adapted for any struggle. Marc was the host of a radio show on WorldTalkRadio, called A Healthy Way to be Sick. You can find copies of his shows on marclerner.com.
© 2015 Marc Lerner