> One common saying that we use without thinking about it much is “Live your life as if it was your last day”. This phrase definitely tries to create a consciousness of thankfulness because we don’t know when death will arrive. Being thankful is an important attitude and we should practice at all times. Without having to contemplate on the phrase yet, I invite you to give thanks for all that happens. Be thankful even to those things that could seem to appear to be bad to our insignificant eyes. I mention “insignificant”, because even the biggest mistake for us, to God it is very easy to forgive. So let’s be thankful for:
Waking up in the morning.
That we can remember friends and good moments.
That we can eat some kind of food.
That you can read this message.
That you live in a world full of conflicts and that we have the capacity to solve them.
And let’s be thankful that we are different compared to others, we can also be thankful for being part of someone’s gossip, that we are feed up with so much work, that our bodies don’t respond as it did in the past. There is so much to be thankful. If we use this attitude and open our eyes, we can see it is not necessary to say “Live your life as if it was your last day”.
> So, let’s go back to the analysis of the phrase. If I think of the phrase, it makes me think of someone who is on death row and is given his last supper. Do you really think that person will enjoy his last supper? I would surely not be able to swallow a bite when I have an overwhelming task before me. Let’s assume that I’m different and that you the reader would have the courage to eat a complete buffet. Hence, the phrase would become “Eat all you can. Take into your interior all that you can!” After seeing this text, I could think that the text justifies that you eat without measuring the consequences because tomorrow your body will be a mass of cold tissues. Let me change the phrase in order to see if I can awaken your desire to live and to enjoy beyond what you have already enjoyed up to date.
> I introduced you to one end of the view, the end of “Eat a lot because you will no longer be able to eat!” Now, I present you to the other extreme, the phrase should be “Live your life as if it was your FIRST day on Earth!” If you see it with these eyes, you will be aware that the attitude of how you live the TODAY changes dramatically. Imagine that it’s the first time in your life that you taste cereal with cold milk, a sweet apple, a quesadilla with salsa, a salmon in peach sauce, a four cheese pizza. Imagine it! You would not look to fill yourself up for fear of not eating tomorrow, but instead you would look to fill yourself with tasteful experiences. Of feeling the food’s texture in your mouth using your tongue. To let the flavors mix in an unpredictable way. Surely, you the reader haven’t been aware that if your food is mixed in a different order you will have a different taste experience. Try it, just once. Eat as if it was your first day on Earth and you will discover extraordinary flavors even in those foods that you would eat in a boring constant way everyday.
> You will definitely, with the experience that I am sharing, sure enough and without thinking, you will be grateful. An automatic expressed pleasure that doesn’t require a person to remind you to be grateful. The gratitude is given in automatic mode when you enjoy and you show the universe that you are completely in ecstasy for such a gift. And don’t forget, I used an example with foods, but you could really apply this first experience of infinite gratitude in all that we do and in all that happens to us. And even if it sounds hard and requires a lot of mature thinking, we can also be thankful for reaching 40 years of age and having cancer. That’s right! It’s something you can be thankful for. I met people who died at 20 or younger. I’m sure they would have been extremely grateful to live another 20 years.
> To conclude, I leave you meditating with both phrases and I invite you every day to use the new phrase. Live today as if it was your first day on Earth.