Visualizing and meditating upon your own death is an incredibly powerful practice. It puts a great deal into perspective on a visceral level. Wise application of this method will cut through laziness, indifference, pettiness, restlessness, and ambivalence.
What follows here is a guided meditation of sorts. The point of this practice isn’t to live this little story but to allow yourself to experience it safely from a position of mindfulness in the present moment. Examine the feelings that arise without rejecting or analyzing.
Drop the contemplation from time to time and just rest in open awareness. Then return to it.
If at any point this becomes distressing or overwhelming, drop the practice and go do something else.
Sit for a few moments in silent, present moment mindfulness. Then contemplate the following:
You are laying in a hospital bed, knowing it is your last day alive. The light of the midday sun gleams through the window to your left.
The room is empty and quiet. You gaze out of the window and watch the lazy puffs of clouds traverse the big blue sky. All of the familiar features from your daily life seem so far away.
From the things you looked forward to every day to the inconveniences you tried to evade.
You take a shallow but mindful breath in and then release it. You aren’t in pain. But you know this is the end of your life. It is the end of all that you have known since the moment of your birth.
You think back on the last time you had been angry and upset. It doesn’t seem all that important anymore. What a waste of time that was.
You remember the last person you helped. You smile. So many important things from before feel meaningless now. But the kindness of that interaction still glows gently in your chest. You wonder why you didn’t do that more often. It wouldn’t have been so difficult.
You wonder what will happen after you die.
Conclude by resting in open awareness.
Refrain from drawing conclusions or indulging any particular emotion. Just let the alchemy of this practice effect its change upon your heart.