The sober joy of knowing that your life is ending.

Can I just take a moment to say how grateful I am to be here,
I said,
Mid-live on the EIQ Nutrition group,
Something we’ve done every week for over 2 years,
Something I took a break from last week on holiday.

There’s a magic combination for me,
Of space, nature, best friends, sleep, spirituality, reading, a lack of screen time, hiking, sensory overload and fantastic food,
That heals me to my core,
That rips away my burnout and replaces it with compassionate soul again.

So I read a lot when I was away,
May I recommend ‘sorrow and bliss’ for some fantastic fiction,
And my favourite type of reading?
Is the type that falls into your lap at the right time,
And eloquently describes how you’ve been feeling,
Like a gift of clarity from the universe.

Another book I was reading was ‘4000 weeks’,
The premise of which really is the finitude of life,
Providing a reminder that we could die tomorrow,
And rather than feel sombre about it,
We can feel liberated.

As you avid readers know,
This past 8 months of my emails have often ended on a similar note,
This is your one life,
That many of you are choosing to spend on food preoccupation,
Body preoccupation,
And negative self talk.

On keeping your world small for fear of failure,
On disconnection for fear of letting people in,
And that by doing so,
You’re giving away your only chance to live this day,
One of your days in your very limited 4000 weeks,
If you’re lucky to get that many.

Because what you pay attention to will define you,
Such that when you over analyse your food,
Your body and exercise,
In a bid to be perfect or seek control of it,
Of course you start to identify as someone who is ‘just like that’,
‘Will always have ‘issues’ with food’.

Because your experience of life is a sum of what you pay attention to,
What you choose to pay attention to,
So I ask you,
What are you choosing?

One of our fab clients asked us on the pod this week,
“I realise now that the voices in my head aren’t me,
That I’m the listener to those voices,
So how do I change what they say?”

And to be honest I was buzzing,
Because the mindfulness work she’s been doing has made her appreciate consciousness,
Allowed her the realisation that ‘you are not your thoughts’,
She has a choice whether to entertain and listen to that toxic narrative,
Or to silence it.

I wish for you all that you would notice those thoughts,
Meet them with curiosity and light-heartedness,
Instead of getting lost in them.

That you would immerse yourself in the present,
Find gratitude that you were made as a miracle to live this life,
Remind yourself that this is a day that you will never get to experience again.

Imagine how different your life would be,
As Sam Harris suggests,
If we lived each moment as if it were the last time we’d ever get to do it?

I wonder if you’d spend your evenings distracting yourself with food if you’d never get to see that best friend again,
If you’d stress over-eating your kids leftovers if you never got to hug them again,
If you’d say no to the opportunity for fear of being not quite good enough,
If you’d never get that opportunity again?

As Oliver Burkeman reminds us,
We are obsessed with extracting the greatest future out of our time,
But the moment of truth is always now,
And life is nothing but a succession of present moments.

Take ownership of your life,
Your choices,
Your present moment,
Because your opportunity to live it is disappearing every single day.