There’s an event in near-death experiences that indicates a way to get better understanding from daily life.
One of the most common things people recall in a near-death experience is going through a review of their lives. Many go through it in minute detail, recalling every event.
Most describe how much they’ve learned from it and what a positive experience it was. But there’s actually a way to learn like this in every day of our lives, by reviewing the day, at the end of each day.
What people tend to say matters most when they review their lives after death are simple things, such as how much they’ve loved, what good they did, how they hurt others, what they felt, and how they made other people feel.
This is what they say is really important. It’s not how much money they earned, or what career they achieved, but it’s more to do with interactions with people, such as what emotions they felt, what they did to others and especially how they loved.
To understand more about how you live, how you really are, and what’s important in life, it helps to do a review at the end of every day; going back over it to see how you thought, felt and acted.
I find that the biggest benefit of this practice (when done regularly) for me comes not during the exercise itself, but later on throughout the day or even the week — it really helps to deepen my understanding and perception of my inner states, and also to be more mindful of my actions, attitudes, and repetitive behaviours. For that reason though, it’s easy to forget the benefits that come from practising it, because the results for me are indirect, but really powerful. I was actually just reflecting on how I haven’t been doing this exercise much lately, and reading about it again in this article has reinforced the need for practising this more.
The video series was very touching for me. I think his experience really cuts through to the essential feelings and experience of this type of life review. The things that are beyond our ordinary perception, are just extraordinary! This experience is a rare glimpse into that. I feel the most important lesson I took away from this is the importance of doing things from the heart, of not wasting time, and of our responsibility and accountability for our actions. I feel like we are sort of trained to gloss over things that happen to us in life which are unpleasant, or sweep embarrassing moments under the rug, etc., or take on a sort of superficial “learning from mistakes” type of attitude (which usually only applies to things that are publicly mortifying, but which, if happened to us when nobody is around to witness our failures, would not have the same effect at all), and yet, this type of experience shows that in the end everything we do counts, every interaction, every thought, literally everything counts in a way that we cannot even begin to calculate. So it puts a stronger responsibility on us as individuals to be and to do our best in every moment, to face our mistakes and correct them, to learn, to change, to do good, and to see life from a much broader perspective.
I agree with you on this Jenny. This article has inspired me to get back to more regular retrospections, and it’s had the same effect for me that you described.
Having a set time and place to review the inner states that have occurred during the day, really gives a boost to being able to spot them when they happen again later–either the next day, or in the short-term future. Then self-observation works so much better, as you’ve now got an incentive for doing it…you know what you’re looking for and what the outcome will be if you go along with a negative emotion or inner state. It also makes the work so interesting because this is what it’s all about…really unearthing aspects of yourself you didn’t even know existed and finding out what makes you tick, so that you can then truly change.
Definitely agree that the results from this simple practice can be quite powerful.
Thanks for this great article and video. I’ve felt compelled to practise retrospection more frequently lately. While I don’t like the patterns I have seen arising and their effects, it’s really highlighted what I need to work on. We are so lucky to have techniques to remove the cause of our continuous mistakes. I think this topic is always timely. Thank you so much.
This article gives us is such a practical guidance , and I’m always amazed how down-to-earth spirituality truly is. How it is in our actions, in our words, in our looks, in our tone etc.. How it always comes back to making a choice: for the life of the spirit or the life of the animal.
In a way, it always comes back to how we spend our time, are we using it for our being, for our consciousness or are we wasting our time and letting our egos have a wild ride (either pleasurable or miserable).
Being able to do this retrospection on a daily basis really helps me on many levels, by being honest with myself, seeing what is bringing me down, what is helping me, what I need to look out for etc..
I’ve also found that it helps me as well the next day, as when I am ‘wasting’ my time, I can feel a nudge from my consciousness making me realize that what I am doing is not in my best interest.
It should be such a simple battle, one we always know on which side we are, yet it is very difficult, and doing this retrospection really helps me see where I’m making those choices and how easily I can loose sights of the spirit.
So thank you very much Belsebuub – as always, your words and guidance brings things back to simplicity and practicality.
I am surprised at the very precise direction guided in this article. The impact of the near-death experience makes sense, as explained in this way.
My own near death experience, very early in my life, had a lot of impact on my perception of life, and later in my commitment to learn more about different dimensions. But in this article, the focus on the MEANING – of the interest to experiment in these various other spiritual dimensions – is percussive: the still urgent need to change.
I think this is the first time for me (in 37 years, since my NDE!) that the meaning of such experiences becomes so clear in my understanding.
Thanks for this article. This is a practice that I’ve found quite useful for opening up new learning, especially about inner states that I missed or didn’t understand the full consequences of during the day.
Also glad to have the reminder about how consistency pays off with this, especially if we want to see the repetition of actions and inner states, which is something that really helps me gauge if/ how I’m changing.
Very inspiring, thank you!
Thanks Belsebuub. Really practical advice. I found the part about our book of deeds very interesting. Just thinking about weighing my good deeds against bad or unimportant I feel it would tip the scales the wrong way. That said, the advice given here is so practical and I think such a great way to learn and gauge progress day to day. Thanks again. You have a great way of bringing perspective.
Thank you Belsebuub for your guidance in this article.
Although retrospection has helped me so much in the past, I often dismiss it, especially when nothing strong happens in my daily life and when it’s difficult for me to see things.
It shocked me the way you related this practice with NDE’s. It touched me deeply, made me reflect on what this practice really offers me and how much I need it at this time, it’s importance and urgency.
The man in the video says: “every day, every person is judged in heaven” and “everything is written in the book, everything is known”.
And you write: “Just as accounts are made in the book there, it’s worth taking account of what you do here and making a judgment upon it. If you see something you really don’t want, then like those in NDEs you’ll probably feel like changing, both in the way you act and in what you feel inside”.
It would be wonderful and very helpful if I could keep this related sense I feel there is between these two reviews.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for this article – clear and simple instructions on how to do this daily exercise, as well as the reasons for and benefits of doing so.
Thanks very much for this article Belsebuub!
I think a lot of the time I just remember events when I’m doing retrospections, rather than how I’ve felt, how my actions have affected others etc, so it will be good to try the practice again in a new light!
Thank you so much Belsebuub for your great guidance in that article. I really appreciate how you share your insight with us – in such a clear, profound and powerful way.
Thank you Belsebuub. I can often dismiss this practice but I can see the importance of it – especially now.. The NDE of that man really was a powerful one – it definitively left me with a lot of reflection on my own life.
Awesome exercises in this article. I find the daily retrospection to be immensely important and has consistently allowed me to see things which happened during the day in another perspective, and has also helped me to get determined about changing.
Thank you so much Belsebuub for this article. It is just what I needed to make myself practice this exercise more. I find it very difficult to see the egos during daily life, especially if nothing much seems happening, there are no open conflicts or not much internal negativity (at least seemingly). But inspired to have a material for this exercise, I am going to try harder to see things now, especially about how much love I had during a day towards all the beings in my life.
I was just taking a break and was going to read this for a few minutes. I read the whole article, and ended up watching the video series, as well. It was so compelling and helpful, and it felt so important to understand in an urgent way.
Thank you so much for this great inspiration and guidance!
This is a very helpful and clear article on the importance of learning to see who we are now – gain an understanding from the heart of the consequences of our actions so that we can make changes while we still have the time and opportunity to do so, while really acquiring knowledge of the subconcious.
Thanks so much for this great article – it is very timely for me.