Impermanence, Death and Other Sexy Things

Think about this for a minute: if you knew – like really knew – you only had a year or a month or however long left to live, how would your mindset change? How many of those inner obstacles currently holding you back would fall away if you truly grasped the impermanent nature of your own life?

Because we think we have time, we spend time on habits (mental, physical, and spiritual) that distract us from creating the life we’re meant to live. We allow ourselves to remain in that comfortable cocoon of “for now” because we’d really rather avoid having to deal with the anxiety, fear and overwhelm that we’d have to overcome to take action. We wait for… another time.

We put the important things off.

We put off the big adventure – and it’s not just the adventures we put off

We put off the inner work, too

We put off forgiving that thing that happened a long ass time ago.

We put off telling someone we love them

We put off just letting ourselves be fucking happy already.

One of the main reasons we do this is because we believe we will have tomorrow, or next month, or next year, or after we retire, or after we graduate, or after we get the raise…

But we don’t know that

Today we’re digging into a couple topics that many people like to avoid the most: the true impermanence of our time here on earth, and the big kicker, the uncomfiest of subjects: death.

But hang with me, there’s a method to this madness!

The first step to changing our mindsets and our actions to create the lives we really want, we have to talk about these things. To recognize, sit with and meet them head on. Because when we fully realize 1. how precious, fleeting, and miraculous this life of ours is, and 2. we are going to die and we don’t know when—that is when we truly start living.

Our hearts open, we give love freely, we find the courage to face our fears and start living the way we’ve been longing to, right now. Believe me, I learned this the hard way.

It isn’t just me who thinks all this. Meditating on the preciousness and impermanence of this human life are the first two steps on the Tibetan Buddhist Path to Enlightenment. In this tradition, it isn’t until you have grasped these two concepts that you can move on to the other stages on the path to enlightenment.

And you know what? The other truth is, if you're living a life that is not in alignment with your truth, with who you are...an authentic life of love, compassion and integrity and whatever else you value – freedom, passion, joy, adventure – then life is going to feel too long - no matter how short.

So you see, the preciousness of this life, the impermanence of it, death...these things aren’t something we should ignore or put off as depressing.

When we are aware of them, we live life more fully.

And while we can’t live every day like it’s our last, we CAN ask ourselves what would make today a good day? One we have no regrets about. One that might even be a good day to die.

Or at least not be a shitty day to die.

I invite you to be brave today, to sit with these topics that may have previously been sources of fear and anxiety for you, and to see them in a new light – a sexy light. A liberating light. And a motivating one.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• How to stop avoiding thinking about death – and how to instead acknowledge what facing it can teach you about living now
• A few ways to shift your mindset about impermanence + use it to mentally reframe your own narrative
• About one of my biggest regrets in life and some life-altering decisions I made along the way – how they pushed me to create the life I wanted and live in integrity
• Why your fear of death is actually your deeper fear that you have not lived your truest life (Steve Chandler)
• How to stop putting off the things that make us happy for ‘another time’ and start living fully now
• Why we must recognize the preciousness of human life in order to take real action toward making the most of the time we have

Resources:

// Read this Elephant Journal piece I wrote about The Buddhist Way to Wake the F*ck up & Really Live your Life.

// Want to know how to build unshakable confidence and resilience? Have a tribe that supports you? Learn about the Rebel Buddhist Manifesto? Click here to grab the Rebel Buddhist Training Kit for a free resilience training, an active online community, and more.

// Ready to dive even deeper into all this? Check out Freedom School and see what everyone’s obsessed about. It’s not just group coaching. It’s a mindset revolution that you won’t want to miss.