Living is the way to dying !

Of Living and dying simultaneously

Many recent instances in my life leads me to reflect on Death. I lost many dear ones within a span of 3 years. All the departures happened within small intervals. Very little time to process one blow before the next. It may be right to say that Death stares at me as the harsh reality and the only reality in life! The most recent is when a dear sister has narrowly escaped and is continuing to live with the aftermaths of the blow, making great efforts to stride back into life!
One of my clients recently told me something very intriguing. She had come to me a few years ago seeking clarity in her confusions and meaning in life. To me now she seems much adjusted and living with zest and meaningfully. She has been able stop all medications, takes responsibility for herself and leads an effective life. She reports great improvement in her physical, mental and social lives.
During the last visit she said casually "I still have the desire to die". Then she explained it and I understood it as "life sometimes is overwhelming and hard to be responsible every moment and a thought chips in as 'It's easier to die than live taking all this responsibility '"
This statement left me mulling over it. When I met my sister in hospital on the recovery road from the life threatening cerebral bleed she went through, this statement of my client again came up in my thoughts. Here's someone struggling to come back to life. We were at a party when the subarachnoid hemorrhage set in and lo within hours she has become so different! The quality of life tumbled over in a matter of minutes.
A new meaning for my client's statement arose in my mind. Every moment of our life we are moving towards death which is the ultimate reality. Yeah the 'desire' to die is their in built in life. In fact death seems the only fact towards which every living being proceed to.  The best way to die is probably by living life fully! True it's by living life fully that we are ready for death. So when depression or the desire to die creeps in what one needs to do is to immerse in life fully!
How do we do it?
Here's how I am learning to doing it. It's about being on the go!

• Instead of brooding get into action doing something or learning something for the pure joy of it
• Be mindful and enjoy whatever I am doing.
• Take care of myself to the best of my knowledge.
• Accept my limitations.
• Give as much as I have.
• Receive / Accept whatever is given to me. 
• Find good in everything around. 

Life makes much sense when I practice this. Otherwise life seems like death or stagnant energy

Holistic Healing

The Women's Organisation of the Malankara Orthodox Church - 'Marthamariam Samajam' invited me for a talk on Holistic Healing in their Global conference held at Pothanpuram(Pampady) Kottayam, Kerala from27-29 April 2016. This blog is a reflection on the experience of this talk.

Around one thousand and five hundred women had gathered in the hall. They were all gathered in the name of Holy Mary m/o Jesus to a spend time in study , meditation and empower themselves. Health and healing is central to the Church's mission.

The listeners wanted an experiential session on Holistic Healing. I started off with a brief description and thrust areas of Holistic Healing practices.

Spiritual awareness, personal reflection and forgiveness practice, mental relaxation and awareness of Body - mind connection are central to Holistic healing. These together maybe understood as practice of Love. We learned about Love as defined by Dr. Scott Peck
Love has been defined by Dr. Scott Peck in his book 'Road Less Travelled'  as "the willingness to grow and let others grow". This in other words is 'Discipline'.The four elements of this kind of love in discipline are
1. Learning to delay gratification 2. Taking responsibility 3. Learning to be truthful to oneself and 4. Achieving balance in all of the above.

Personal reflection was practiced based on this understanding to become aware of any lovelessness in our hearts. The participants practiced making a note of this awareness and decided to discard it from their lives. Symbolically it was practiced by writing it on paper and destroying the same.

Awareness of the Positive energy of the Holy Spirit was practiced by reflecting on the positive qualities in others and placing the positive thoughts in the space of the discarded negative thoughts.

This was followed by two minutes relaxation of the body and aligning the relaxed body to the mind.
The session was concluded with a reaffirmation that these practices can be initiated by each one and practiced again and again for long standing benefits and experience of 'Abundant Living' .

I enjoyed going through this experiential process. many of the participants met me personally outside the session to inform me that it was a great experience and new learning!

Practicing the Preach - The spiritual level of living

Human beings function as physical, mental and spiritual beings. Sometimes the three are integrated . At other times the three dimensions of existence are disintegrated. The physical body and concrete physical experiences are considered very real (the Only reality) by large majority of people. Experiences of the mind and life with good intellectual functioning is practiced by a much lesser number of persons. An even lesser no of persons experience a rich spiritual life.

For those persons whom the physical experience is the only reality, life is centered around the sensations and what it gives. They seem to be concerned with material comforts and means to achieve and maintain those comforts. This often is a never ending process. So they are perennially dissatisfied and always in search of comfort. Those using their intellectual capacity explores the meaning of the thoughts and emotions and find meaning of many physical problems at the level of the mind. They verbalise their thoughts and communicates them with other persons around. They are often interested to get across their experience to those whom they think are not functioning in their level. This communication is a cognitive understanding of many phenomenon in life. It is their satisfaction in knowing these facts that they are trying to share. This may include psychological explanations of many physical maladies and ways to overcome or prevent them. This may be considered the 'Preach'.

The spiritual group transcends these two levels and are at peace with nature and life.  They may be considered the most integrated. They seldom preach. They live their lives fully and in tune with nature and the 'present'. They seem to be aware of human limitations and let others 'be'. They do not actively strive to communicate their ideas to others or change others. They communicate without many words. Their being and living are their communication.Their peace flows to those who are in their presence. This may be understood as 'practicing the preach'.

I think it is worthwhile to reflect where am I? Is it the goal for humanity to evolve to the integrated living? What are the ways it may happen? Why isn't everyone able to live integrated living? Where in lies the means for that? Are life experiences helping one to go through these stages?If so how can that be expedited or facilitated? Does it need any facilitation at all??