Maybe everything that feels off in your life is simply someone else’s drama?

Last weekend I was at a Meditation Retreat hosted by Dr. Prashant Kakoday and Brahma Kumaris. It was an excellent, mind opening event.

I find that we learn new information, get blown away by the new perspective we’ve been given, absorb what we can of it, assimilate it into our lives, and then we get on with the business of living and think we have expanded as far as we can. What’s needed then is another implosion caused by information that pushes us to open up further again.

That’s what Dr Kakoday did for me this past weekend. In some ways I didn’t learn anything I hadn’t known already. But the way he delivered it, the metaphors he used enabled me to go from an intellectual understanding to an emotional knowing and a way to integrate this new information, this further mind opening into my life.

The first thing he talked about was to imagine ourselves as guests in our lives and on this beautiful planet. We don’t own anything, we can take nothing with us on our journey, so letting go of possessiveness and seeing yourself as a guest, can you allow yourself to picture how that might change how you are in the world, how you might be different in your interactions with others?

As a guest, you wouldn’t be rude to other guests, that would be disrespectful to your host. You wouldn’t get into arguments over land, politics, family, sex anything because you’re a guest, you don’t behave like that in someone else’s place.

As a guest, you wouldn’t drop litter or promote unenvironmental practices and industries, you would clean up after yourself, just as you would if you were staying in a friend’s house for the weekend.

This ‘be a guest’ analogy really resonated with me as, right now, I’m involved in a fractious relationship with my next door neighbour. As a guest, I wouldn’t bitch or moan about this person because that would be unfair to my host, as my neighbour is also their guest. I would be polite and courteous even though I want to snarl at them, because to give in to my anger fueled impulses would, again be disrespectful to my host.

And as a guest, I don’t take offence or take anything personally because I’m not here to stay and will be moving on.

Which brings me to the next great thing I took away from the weekend, death is inevitable, so stop pushing it away and start thinking about how it can inform your life. Did you know Steve Jobs, founder and architect of Apple, spent 3 minutes in meditation every morning before he started his day thinking about how he could die that day so it was important to do the things that mattered first.

Spend a little bit of time on that thought, you could die today so do that which matters first. How many of us do that? Its more likely you, like me, spend your day checking email, scrolling through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, allowing your time to fritter away and the important things, the ones that matter to you get pushed back, day after day. What if you run out of time? What if you leave the important things undone?

And maybe you’re also like me, in that you do the easy things first and put off those that you think might be hard, might need more effort, where you have to step up and step out of your comfort zone.

And its usually those things that we need to do first.

And annoyingly, those are the things we love doing when we finally, finally get around to doing them. Yes, we might feel uncomfortable because we’re doing something new, putting ourselves out there to be seen, but that’s what makes it exhilarating and exciting too.

So maybe, Steve Jobs was onto something. Do the things that matter, do the hard things first.

And the final insight that rocked my world was that our lives were merely a drama and we, the actors. This life is merely a stage for us, who are as infinite beings, are playing a role of human limitation. That everyone and everything in our lives are fellow players and props in the drama that unfolds. Its not real, it not who we are, its an experience, nothing more than that.

This echoes the work of Jerry and Esther Hicks and Mike Dooley, two of my favourite teachers, who also suggest that we are infinite beings here on earth to enjoy the experience of being limited and human. That this human body is not the whole of who we are, and of course our consciousness suggests we are so much more.

As a hypnotherapist, I have experienced this myself with Past Life Regression, Higher Self Communication and connecting to my soul in meditation.

However, I don’t live from that point of view. I get sucked into the drama and forget that I am a player on a stage. I am, of course, the star performer in this drama of mine, just as you are the star performer in your life drama. But I keep believing the drama is the whole of it and giving the spotlight to others on my stage.

The simple way Dr Kakoday related this analogy to the truth of who we are and how to live our lives created a massive shift in me. My life is not this soap opera, its just the current station I’m tuned into while I enjoy the feelings and contrasts and learning. Its up to me to make it a happy ever after for me. Not anyone else.

This new thinking will influence my meditation classes and hypnotherapy, as my new depth of understanding enables me to guide clients to disassociate from the negative, unpleasant discomforts they are experiencing and embrace new learnings and move forward to greater successes. We all win.

I think learning and growing is the most important thing we can do, to every day share what we’ve learned and lift everyone up to new understanding. To help humanity as a whole grow and change and become better. Its an ambitious target and one I think we can achieve together.