Posts Tagged ‘Near Death Experience’
A Crisis of Courage
March 30, 2010 | 
Author I was having a pretty intense conversation with someone I love dearly yesterday. We were talking about making life changes – messy ones that turn things upside down, inside out and sideways, and I walked away asking for a message of comfort and inspiration. The discussion left me with a glimmer of hope, but totally drained, and I needed something to help me regain some balance.
You’d think that after dying three times conversations like the one we had would be easy. I mean, after all, there isn’t much else a person could experience that compares with death, right?
The truth is that when we come back to this side, we are back in our human bodies, and we’re blessed with the same challenge that all spirits in human bodies face – learning to live authentically, even when it means “creating” pain for those around us.
I tossed and turned last night, prayed, tried to meditate, and I woke up this morning, checked my e-mail, and received the following message from Nightingale-Conant:
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great” – John D. Rockefeller, American Industrialist and Philanthropist
Do you ever think about how your eulogy will read? “…a good person, a very good parent, a hard worker, and a beloved citizen of this community…” That’s a respectable tribute honoring a respectable life. OR will your eulogy be one that is talked about and remembered for years – just as your life’s contributions will be? Go for the great in every interaction and challenge you face.
Now don’t you think that’s the perfect message for a girl who was three-times close to having her eulogy written and read? Those Angels really know what they’re doing!
This was exactly what I needed, and it sparked a connection with something I learned on the other side. Often times, the issues we face in our lives stem from a crisis of courage.
We know deep down in our bones that we need to make changes, yet we fail to take action because we’re afraid to give up the known for the unknown – we think we have it good, so we never go for something great. We become complacent and when that happens, we create a crisis of courage in our lives because complacency breeds fear. Living in fear means that we’re no longer using our Divine DNA to create something better for ourselves and those around us.
Once we become complacent and fearful, the ego takes over, and we start to rationalize – we’ll create too much pain for others, we’ll lose friends, it’s selfish to expect more when we have so much, we’ve never succeeded in the past so why try now, the timing is all wrong, etc., etc., etc.
The truth of the matter is that if we’re staying in whatever circumstances we have created because of fear or complacency, we’re actually hurting ourselves and everyone else around us far more than if we have the courage to step up, let go of the good, and go for something great!
When you’re in a situation that is causing your soul to stagnate, you need to take some time to determine whether the situation can be transformed into greatness. If it can, what are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and get to work. If it can’t, then you must move on for the benefit of everyone involved! Your Divine DNA demands it.
Complacency manifests in our lives through relationships. We have relationships with people, places, and things. When we become too comfortable with our communities, our material possessions, and with significant others/spouses, business partners, co-workers, and clients – we stagnate. The only way to combat complacency is to embrace the gift of courage we were given from the other side.
Our Divine DNA is courageous. It is fearless and unstoppable because it knows it is eternal. This is the lesson that all the spiritual greats understood and that we’ve forgotten.
Our souls have a limited time in this physical body. Do you truly want to get to the other side and realize that you spent that time living a life of complacency while your soul suffered through years of quiet desperation?
I know what it’s like to be on the other side and watch a life review with the full knowledge that the time for physical action is over, and I know what it’s like to have been blessed with another chance. Now is your time – don’t let fear stop you from letting go of something good to go for something great.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
“He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.” – Henri Frédéric Amiel
What Does Dying Feel Like?
I either get that exact question or something similar, like, “Does Dying Hurt?”. I usually answer with another question, and it’s not because I’m being difficult. It just really depends on whether you want to know if the getting to the dying part hurts or whether actually dying hurts. For me, getting to actually dying hurt. The brain hemorrhage was extremely painful – so much so that I was given a narcotic one hundred times stronger than Morphine to keep my body unconscious - but even then, I still remember hurting A LOT.
Dying was actually a really easy process. To keep the blog post short, I’m only going to talk about one instance. Discussing all three experiences gets to be a bit much in one setting. Right before I left my body, everything went still. I compare the stillness to what it feels like when you take a walk outside right before a really big storm - it’s that calm, quiet, yet supercharged buzz - only without the impending sense of doom. There was a momentary blackness along with the stillness, and then I was above my body, and because I felt so amazing, I was curious! There was absolutely no more pain. None. I felt AWESOME!
I remember looking at mybody in the bed and thinking that I was much smaller than I ever thought I was. All my life up to that point I had looked at myself as larger, no matter what the tag on the back of my clothing said (at that time it was a size 2). On the other side, I could really see my body for what it was. I remember thinking I was tiny, especially compared to the size of the bed. The doctors had put all kinds of grainy gunk in my hair because they needed to do an EEG, so I remember finding it humorous that my hair looked like Frankenstein’s bride’s beehive. I remember thinking that I definitely wasn’t going to win a beauty contest, and yet everyone in the room emanated a vibration of pure love.
That vibration is the only thing that carried with me. I did not grieve on the other side, and because I only felt the love of those in the room, it was really easy to leave when Gabriel and Raphael came to get me. It’s funny, when I sit and analyze it now, there was absolutely no fear at that point for me and no real attachment to my body either. I realized it was a shell, and that I was still alive, and that it was time for me to go.
So, to answer the question succinctly, no…death does not hurt. It didn’t hurt for me, and the numerous others I’ve talked to who have experienced “near death” confirm the same. Coming back though, now THAT is a different story! But we’ll save that for another time.
Until then – be well and live well!