You Only Go Around Once, But If You Play Your Cards Right, Once Is Enough.

Everybody wants to go to heaven
But nobody wants to die
I can fear death no longer
I've died a thousand times
-Bring Me The Horizon

Robin Sharma said: ''The beautiful thing about fear is, when you run to it it runs away.''
That's the kind of mentality I have been developing the past months, thinking about my own mortality.
Fear is an uncomfortable emotion.
But it's not the end of the world.
We can choose to transcend the emotion.
To feel the fear, and accept it for what it is.

Last weekend, as I was walking on the trail in the forest, I started to become scared that a bear would show up and kill me. My alarm system started to kick in. Fear was getting the best of me, and I was almost tempted to go back to the camp site. And then I started talking to myself ''Sab, relax. There's nothing to fear.'' That is, there's nothing to fear except fear itself! What is the worse that could happen? Well the worst that could happen would be that a bear would somehow appear and jump up to me and I'd die.
But if that was to be my destiny, then so be it!
I've been loving life recently, but it should not change the way I look at death.

Allan Watts once said something truly fascinating about death.
He said that it should be celebrated just like we do with graduation, mariage, name it, all special events.
And I thought to myself, wow, he is absolutely right!
Why should we resist something natural, that is meant to happen?
As in contrast to life, death is filled with eternal peace.
A new beginning, or shall I say, a new end?
God knows!

Meditation has been the process that helped me stop fearing death.
In order to meditate, you have to let your old self die, in order to access a new one.
My ego is slowly dying, to transform itself into something even better: pure consciousness.
No mental labels. No associations. No judgments.
That's the beautiful thing that happens once you start to think with the soul, rather than with the mind.

The only certainty about life is its impermanence.
Everything around us is constantly changing.
Nothing lasts forever.
That is the cycle of life.
The law of nature.
Death is not the end of everything, as it is a part of everything.
To become the person I am today, to live a life of abstinence, I had to let my old persona die.
I came to life again, as a new person, and I believe I will keep on doing so for the rest of my life.
We're all linked to something bigger than ourselves, and our role while here is to fulfill this mission.

I remember when I was in high school, the acronym ''YOLO'' was in vogue, and we would use it to justifiy everything we were doing.
''I just ate a full box of cookies, but YOLO.'' 😋
''I spent my whole paycheck but who cares! You only live once, right!?''😎
''I cheated on my boyfriend... I mean it was just a kiss... I guess I could say you only live once, don't you think...?''😏

Looking back at it today, it is a shame we were running around talking about our one life like we could do whatever we wanted, when we wanted!
Might as well sign up already on Ashley Madison!
''Life is short. Have an affair.''
Ouf!
Adding fuel to the fire is without a doubt the technology era in which we find ourselves in.
Instead of being proposed to ''Reignite the Spark in Your Life. Connect with Married Men/Women Today'', we should be offered some free counseling website therapies.
Funny how the founder of Ashley Madison has been married for 14 years and has 3 kidoos!
I wonder if he cheats!
I don't consider myself as a judgmental person, so I don't know what really is my opinion on that...
I mean... the statistics are there. Sure they are numbers, but they reveal the harsh truth most of us are too afraid to hear.
There's a 50% chance of infidelity in marriages.
1/3 married couples admit to have engaged in a form of cheating.
And those are the ones who confess it...
I've been around the block and I can tell you that most of the time, (and that really does break my heart) married spouses will cheat and their partners will never know...

I personally always saw marriage as being beneficial when you decide to have children with your partner.
Otherwise, I see it for what it is: a contract by which you are both holding each other by the balls.
Why can't we love freely? Without need to put a label or worse, a contract on it?
Should the contract be another reason why we should keep on going, even when there's no more reason to?

If we only go around once, then why not forget about the labels. Not only for others, but for ourselves also.
Why don't we give ourselves the chance every day to create a new us?
Or if we want to use labels, why not use positive ones?
Today, I can decide I want to put on the label of kindness. And so instead of being right today, I will choose to be kind.
Or the label of love if we want to tell the people close to us how much we love them.
The label of gratitude, if we want to make a conscious effort today to replace entitlement with appreciation of what we have.
Last year, what I would do when I'd put my waking alarm on my phone, is that I would set the time and put a little sentence for the next waking morning such as:
''Today, I will choose kindness, humility and gratitude.'' ✿
It's a little thing, but every little thing will add up in the end.

Life really is short.
I came to notice how fast the year went by in 2017, and now that we are already mid 2018, it gets even faster.
And the pace will only get quicker the older I'll become.

When I tell people who ask me if I want kids in the future that I don't, something I hear often enough - apart from the ''You'll change your mind'', is the ''But who is going to take care of you when you will be old?''
I'm always like ''Really!?!''
You think that I would decide to have children just for the ''What if I'm too old and I need help?''
That is just one example, but it states pretty well how people think they got their whole lives ahead of them.
None of us know if we will make it that far.

As Allan Watts has put it so well:
' It's better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.'
And to be fair with you, more than ever do I believe the power of his words. ✨

If you made it this far into reading my article, first I would like to thank you very much, as it always means a lot to me!💖
Secondly, I would like to share with you that on the date of today: Friday July the 13th (ouhh 🙀), you can get a medium size fry at McDonalds with any purchase. (This is in Canada, so I am not sure it is the same in the U.S.😟)
On this note, Happy National Fry Day!

Talking about motto...
This used to be MY motto in high school...