If you live long enough, you will experience things in life that will break your heart. One of them for me was witnessing parents loose a child, last week we said our final goodbyes to my 24-year-old cousin as he was taken away in his coffin.
I am feeling the heaviness of mourning, this loss is powerful lessons for me though, you can learn so much about living, from the people you have to say goodbye to.
Life is so precious. That heart that is beating in your chest is your life force. I want you to connect to the energy that is coursing through you and know that it is what matters the most. Not the shoes, the bags, the accolades, the attention, the recognition or the competition. Your precious human life force is all that really matters and it is your job to protect it, nurture it and honour it.
I was reminded of this by losing my cousin tragically. When you feel the loss of someone’s essence, that thing that made them who they were, perhaps you can connect to your own essence. Perhaps you can see that it is your responsibility to remove the things in your life that prevent you from truly living.
We live in a time where we can completely disconnect from one another, but more frighteningly, from ourselves. You can lose hours of your life streaming, scrolling and snapping. When was the last time you spent time with yourself free from distraction? Pay attention to yourself and own your emotions. You cannot live a deeply fulfilled and joyful life if you are not in a healed and safe relationship with yourself.
Mourning is an intensely personal
experience, when we lost my cousin, I felt it in my bones. I feel the loss and I am reminded to keep truly living. I don’t want to wallow or live in the pain, I want to use it as a reminder to keep living and giving and healing.
This is your life. You don’t get to go back and try again if you don’t get it right this time, the pain of loss reminds us of this. It is not a cliché, its true: we only have this very moment guaranteed to us. We are not meant to suffer, to feel stuck, to just pay bills and die. We are meant to squeeze every last drop of happiness and joy out of this thing called life. Please do more living, more loving, more healing, enjoy more happiness, more peace and more joy. It is the only thing that truly matters in the end.
The author is a consultant and coach. Instagram handle: @miss_shefa, Website: missshefa.com
Shefa Ali
