We will never know when the last time that we do something will be. The last day, the last coffee, the last breathe, the last time we speak to that friend, the last time you hug your parents or the last time we make love.
If we did know then it would certainly shift our awareness of that singular moment to one of pure appreciation, just before we get on the great train out of here but what about all the other moments we experienced leading up to that point?
“Live each day like it was your last”
Is a really great concept and guiding light for living life but practically we all know how hard that can be when your day is made up of a multitude of circumstances and experiences. Some of which usually suck us right out of the present moment and throw us deep into the muddy pond of life, which shifts our main focus for the day to one of survival.
“Just get me to the bank so I can climb out!”
Becomes our motto for the day.
Self awareness and mindfulness can of course help us to navigate these experiences, but maybe instead of living each day like it was your last, how about living every special moment in your life like it was your last?
It’s much easier to turn up the dial on gratitude during a moment of outright appreciation.
So use these moments as sign posts of appreciation, and try to hit the pause button for long enough so that you can fully absorb those moments.
When I first went travelling back in 2001 to Thailand, Indonesia and Australia with one of my best friends Rob, we had a slogan that brought us into the present moment. During moments of appreciation we would say out loud:
“Now this is a JD moment!”
Back then a JD and Coke was our drink of choice and it was symbolic of so many fun times in our friendship that it became an acknowledgement of any outstanding life moment, that deserved to be honoured, felt and appreciated.
Whether we were on a beach in Ko Tao watching the sun set, a roof top bar in Sydney or we were dancing in the pouring rain on the flooded streets of Bali, one of us would state:
“This is a JD moment”
Whether we were in arms reach of a cool JD and Coke or not, we would both stop and take in that moment.
Note: If we drank a JD and Coke for every magic moment we had, I don’t think we’d have made it back alive!
This is something I have done ever since. It has given me the ability to identify when I’m right in the middle of an epic life moment, pause, to step back and just revel in the eternal moment of now even for a few milliseconds, before it passes and I move onto the next.
The more awareness we can bring to all the beautiful and sometimes minute moments in our lives, the more richer it becomes, because life is made up of so many more smaller moments than large earth shattering ones.
Appreciating all the small soul touching moments in life will give you a buffer for when the larger earth shattering ones come and a depth to your experience that will accumulate over the course
of your life, creating an even richer tapestry for your experience.
This excerpt from my book ‘The Journey to the Centre of Your Soul’ illustrates the point.
Enjoy
“Are you being fully present when making love with Life?
Are you running your fingertips gently over her cheekbones and her soft, curvaceous natural world whilst you look deeply and courageously into the eyes of Life without knowing how Life will look back at you, willing to put everything on the line so that you can experience all that she has to offer?
Taste the full spectrum of Life’s delicious rainbow, explore every inch of it, slowly with intention and attention, revelling in all her juiciness.
Do you penetrate life deeply with care and compassion, or do you rush unconsciously to completion, taking only what you need without giving anything back to her in return?
You are in a deep love affair with Life. She is there for you, loving you, supporting you, but calling you out on your bullshit when you are not true to your word.
Treat her with the reverence and respect she deserves, and she will make love to you in ways that your mind can’t comprehend.
Life knows you better than you know yourself, and there is nothing you can keep from Life that she doesn’t already know or sense in you.
So instead of just going through your day in your usual way,
Make love with life, today and for each day to come,
She will not be here forever,
Make love while her sun shines.”
