A Full Circle of a Beautiful Life

View from my former rooftop. Oh, how I miss it. NE DC

Breathe.

Be still.

Keep Calm.

Know that you will be okay.

Then...get to work!

That's the overall message I hope that people are receiving in this ridiculously unprecedented era of living on this topsy turvy wacky ass planet. I will not get into the politics that have me yelling, involuntarily, at CNN almost every night (gotta go back to shutting media out altogether). I will share something that came up for me during a meditation session this week. Sometimes, the stillness and mindfulness bring forth emotions and thoughts I am not always aware I have, but this week was a bit different. 

This week my meditation sessions have tugged at grief, hope, calming anxiety, strength, courage, & wisdom (Arie me, India (ha)). I have been thinking a lot about end-of-life planning. It's really not as morbid as it sounds. I have been speaking a lot lately about how important it is to live simply and in peace. That may be to reconcile differences with others, or knowing when you have done all you can and let go of what keeps you from living in the peace you seek. I'm using the universal "you" here, which can also mean me. 

I once saw a documentary about infant mortality, and you would think it would be devastatingly sad. It was. However, the practitioner who worked with the mothers of the beautiful babies whose time was extremely short on this earth showed them so much kindness and care. Her objective was to help the mothers experience those last moments with their babies and to let those be a beautiful ending to a very sad moment. The practitioner said we (humans) often speak of having a beautiful life, and we hardly speak of having a beautiful death. I think we don't associate death with beauty because we view it as a painful loss that we simply do not want to happen, but as I meditate on a beautiful life, I've found myself asking the universe to grant me a beautiful ending, whenever it comes. I even think about what will happen to my remains and where I want them to go. No boxes underground for me. Like many feel nowadays, life has felt confining enough. Let my spirit and remains be free.

Okay, enough of that. Now to the point of this blog post. lol

During my meditation this week, some questions started coming up for me. I think this is because I've been soul-searching and finding my way to the next chapter of my life. My hope is to really follow what is in my heart to do while I'm on this side of reality and pray that I find my way to it before I leave. Now I want to ask you the same questions that came up for me. Feel free to journal your answers or even share your thoughts with me in the comments section.  

Q1. What if you could reverse engineer your life, as you wish for it to be, from death to, let's say, the point you became aware of your autonomy to choose who you will be in this life? 

Q2. What would it take for you to reach the desired ending and feel you have mapped out what would be required to get there? 

Okay, so a little of my vocation is showing up in my meditation because my business strategy and design thinking mindset play a large part in this question of how to create the life you hope to end up with in the final analysis.

Here are a few things that can get you to thinking of how you can create life strategies for yourself but know that in actual design thinking exercises, this would involve more people, sticky notes, and markers to create big ideas that will help design creative solutions to a problem you're trying to solve or adding value to an already successful scenario. Design thinking starts with asking a question. The question usually starts with "How might we...?" The questions are designed to guide you through the process of identifying what works and what doesn't. Afterwards, that's when the designing begins. 

When considering life and how we want to end it beautifully, we must think about what it will take to reach the end of a fulfilling life. I had never thought to reverse-engineer life until I recently started focusing on my design thinking and business strategy training. 

The following is the pathway to creating strategies for almost anything you want to design. The in-between work is where the fun happens. 

What is? This is the starting point of your design thinking process. Examine what is currently true about your situation.

What if? Without limitations, you get to determine what your desired outcome is, no matter how big, audacious, or fantastical your vision may be. Here is where your divergent thinking comes into play. Think BIG! 

What wows? Of your ideas, which ones are so compelling that you want to try them, prototype, and showcase their greatness? This is where you start to reach convergent thinking and narrow down ideas to find the single best solution. This is also when many other questions come up, and you ask questions like "What would have to be true for me to get this particular outcome?" From there, you set your criteria or requirements to make that version of your vision real. Good stuff, right?  

Finally, What works? This is the part where you create your strategies, then...live them. If something doesn't work out quite right, keep tweaking the strategies. 

As I conclude another long post, I'll say this: life isn't perfect. it is messy, chaotic, crazy, funny, unpredictable, heartbreaking, emotional, exciting, and so many other things, but I hope that you also find it beautiful and know that the end can be beautiful, too.  You can start now by loving yourself and being kind to those around you. Find joy in the small and big things. Live your dreams so that at the end, you can say, "I gave it my all and it was a beautiful, messy ride."

Be@Peace!

Stay Tru💋