How to Practice Mortality

p.s. You're Going to Get Really Good at It

Many of us who have had brushes with mortality report similar findings.

1.) A cataclysmic shifting of attention away from everyday concerns to a generalized sense of the holiness of life and

2.) That one is going to live after all when everyday concerns start creeping back in.

Having had my own encounter with a life and death illness 25 years ago (breast cancer) I’ve had a lot of time wishing I could simultaneous experience the holiness of life whether or not there is a hospital involved. In support of this vision, I came up with a spiritual exercise worth trying. I call it “How to Practice Mortality.”

How to Practice Mortality

1.)    Begin by asking yourself what is bothering you most today?  Find a pencil with an eraser and a piece of paper sized comparably to the degree of concern. The bigger the issue, the larger the sheet of paper.

2.)    At the bottom, draw a circle no larger than a third of the page and inside it write a brief description of what’s bothering you along with any players in the drama and the associated emotions. You can additionally or alternately draw a picture or symbolic representation of what is weighing on your mind.

3.)     Imagine yourself on an invisible boat moored to the circle of concern by a chain of links. Now picture yourself floating in the boat gently up the page until the chain is taught.

4.)    Draw the links of the chain attached to your starting at the circle and rising upwards on the page. When you are almost about to run out of room at the top, erase the link nearest you—or if you are so moved, the entire chain—and set yourself free.

5.)    Now in a moment, after reading this, close your eyes and visualize  your boat continuing to float up and away, your circle of concern getting smaller and smaller as it recedes. Imagine any of the people involved, your related thoughts and feelings shrinking in the distance until it has disappeared almost entirely. You are shedding your unsettled emotions like layers of old clothes. Now, in this calm, floating space, beyond all the stories, beyond the drama, even the boat falls away and you experience yourself floating peacefully, stripped to your essence. Your essence is love. You are floating in a field of love. You are not separate from this field—you are merged with it. Now, through these eyes of love, imagine looking down to the distant page and the circle of concern. How has your experience of it changed?

6.)    Now open your eyes and take a fresh look at your original circle of concern. Does it wield the same impact? Has anything about it lightened up? Capture anything  that has changed since you first drew it by using your eraser and editing. If there’s too much to update, consider drawing a new circle entirely or even throwing the whole thing away and taking a deep sigh of relief.

Next time you are bothered by something, or an old concern resurfaces, start the Mortality Practice over again. Wait long enough, and you won’t have to do this as a self-chosen exercise. The equivalent will happen to you spontaneously and organically any and every time you find yourself uncomfortably close to awareness of your mortality.

In the meantime, know this: getting to the heart of what really matters is do-able regardless of your circumstances, but it takes practice. So, for those of you who would like to feel deeply connected to the loving universe and see your concerns in the broadest possible perspective, regardless of whatever is bothering you most today, my practice is this week’s gift to you.