Dying to be Me
A few months ago, I read the book Dying to Be Me, written by Anita Moorjani. In the book, she details her after-life experience after she fell into a coma. I know most people call them a Near-Death Experience (NDE), but I like to call them an after-life experience, because I truly believe people are experiencing what life is like after death. This book was so captivating for me, and I am going to do my best to recall her message here and share the biggest takeaways I had.
In the book, Anita describes her battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a blood cancer that causes tumors to form in the lymph nodes) and details how she ended up in the hospital on her death bed. At the “end” of her battle, she showed up emaciated, her body covered in lemon-sized, cancerous tumors, and sores; she was unable to eat or lay down because the fluid in her lungs would prevent her from breathing. Her organs were shutting down and the doctors had little options left to treat her. Anita describes floating above her body, watching her mother and husband, and being very aware of what everyone around her was saying, even if they weren’t in the same room. She wanted to let her family know that she was okay, that she was no longer in pain. She talks about expanding into another realm and having an encounter with her deceased father and best friend, where her father let her know she could come back to Earth and be healed.
Anita describes consciousness by using an analogy of being in a dark warehouse. While here on Earth, it’s like we are in that dark warehouse with only a flashlight, and we can only see so much at one time; our consciousness is very limited. But, while in this other realm, she explained that it was like having the whole warehouse lit up, and she could see how interconnected everything is. She was able to have clarity about her life, and she knew that her illness was caused by all of her angst and fear. She was so scared of everything - scared of getting sick, scared of disappointing others, scared to be herself. She states that she would never want to minimize anyone else’s experience but understands that we are biological creatures, and our mind is so very powerful in determining how our body reacts to our environment. Everything is interconnected physically, and the truth is that we cannot know exactly how it all works.
Our understanding of this life is incomplete. We cannot know it all in this life, and it’s important to recognize that and practice developing our intuition. We can let go and release, be at ease, and follow the many nudges that source provides us. We take life so seriously (I know I do), but when making decisions, sometimes it’s best to let go and feel — make the decision with our hearts and not our heads. Anita states that the mind is more about doing and the soul is about being. If we can practice just being, we are better able to listen to our intuition. We can experience more clarity, and the universe will present more and more synchronicities into our life. We can be at peace in our bodies and promote healing.
She stresses the need to be present. When we are present, we are powerful creators, and we can prevent ourselves from experiencing the negative emotions from the past or the worry and stress about the future. When we focus on being, we can more easily hear our intuition and follow our passions. We are here in this physical world to express our uniqueness. We need to find our own magnificence, as she says. We are each special and bring our own interests, thoughts, and beauty into the world — it’s important for us to remember why we are here — to experience joy and pursue the things that make us happy.
The biggest lesson Anita learned was about self-love. We do ourselves such a disservice by not loving ourselves unconditionally. We are our own biggest critics, judging ourselves constantly. She explains how so much of our suffering comes from comparing ourselves to others or feeling “less than.” But she wants people to know that we are whole, we are complete, and we are magnificent. Anita says, “I would want you to know that every part of you is magnificent — your ego, intellect, body, and spirit. It’s who you are — a beautiful product of this Universe’s creation. Every aspect of you is perfect. There’s nothing to let go, nothing to forgive, nothing to attain. You already are everything you need to be. It can seem so complicated, but it’s not.”
She stresses the importance of treating ourselves with love and kindness. We need to take care of ourselves and not put ourselves last. When we love ourselves more, we experience so much more joy, and we can truly be the version of ourselves that we are meant to be here on Earth. We can also let other people be who they are without feeling the need to change them. She says, “when we’re each aware of our own magnificence, we don’t feel the need to control others, and we won’t allow ourselves to be controlled.”
This message resonated with me deeply. I am critical of myself often, and I also catch myself criticizing others and getting wrapped up in silly dramas. We spend so much time stressed out, anxious, and/or worried about what other people think or if we are making the right decisions in life. What a waste of time! All of this only prevents us from becoming the best version of ourselves and experiencing life to its fullest. We are perfect, and we don’t need changing, we just need a little more self love and care.
I will end with a few of Anita’s biggest takeaways:
“Always remember not to give away your power — instead, get in touch with your own magnificence.”
“Love yourself unconditionally and be yourself fearlessly!”
“Enjoy yourself and not take yourself or life too seriously.”
“Make sure to laugh as often as possible throughout every single day.”
I believe we can gather so much intelligence on how to live this life better when we can tap into the larger consciousness (in this life or afterlife). My aunt had an after-life experience when I was young, and I hope to write about her experience in a future post. I know a key takeaway for her was similar to the above, we are loved unconditionally, and life doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it.
My biggest takeaway from this book is to remember to think highly of myself. I am so critical of myself at times, and it’s a sad waste of time. Instead, I should be celebrating my differences and everything I have accomplished in life. Instead of being critical about all the things I haven’t yet achieved, I need to stay in gratitude for the opportunity to live this life, to experience all it has to offer, and for all of my many blessings. I want to always remember how magnificent life can be! I want to stay positive about the future and remember that miraculous things happen daily. We cannot predict the future, but we can spend our present moments in wonder and awe, knowing that good things can and do happen all the time. And, it’s also important to take some pressure off ourselves — the universe is here to help us along the way, and we don’t have to know everything. We can put our faith and trust in something much bigger than ourselves.
