Irrfan Khan’s demise left all of us in deep grief. He died at the age of 53, after fighting with endocrine cancer for a long time. He died and joined the league of great personalities who died at an early age, like Steve Jobs (56), David Goldberg (47), Princess Diana (36), Guru Dutt (39), Vincent Van Gogh (37), Chester Bennington (41), John Lennon (40), they all died due to cancer, heart attack, accident, depression, suicide, and murder respectively.
There were things common between all of them. They were self-made and their professional and personal struggles (rejections) were similar but also how they motivated and inspired others with their work in a significantly short time. But their untimely deaths reiterated the fact that – Our life is uncertain and we don’t really have time to crib and regret the incidents of life which can be resolved with simple attempts.
This is a hard fact of the 21st century that deteriorating mental health, disturbed environment, and other unprecedented factors are taking the lives of people at an unexpectedly faster rate. Loneliness alone can reduce eight years of your life. The study revealed that loneliness has a ripple effect on your health, and due to psychosomatic attributions loneliness can develop other serious problems.
A Chicago University study showed that because of poor air quality, the life of the people in New Delhi can be further reduced by at least ten years. Such lifestyle and natural factors are making life decrepit. Therefore, I believe that we do not have time to regret, fight with others, think negatively, and sit idle.
Life is extremely unpredictable, and before we die, we should do the following things. As it’s always better to do something in your life when you have time rather than repent about it later.
Gratitude
We should feel gratitude for whatever we have and continuously try to improvise our life. Pay respect to nature, your parents, teachers, and friends who contributed something in your life, who stood by you in tough times, and helped you to sail through it.
Serve
At some point in life, we reach a position when we can return back something to society. An individual can bring positive changes in society by his/her simple actions. We can feed someone, sponsor the education of a child, and sometimes help a person in genuine financial trouble. There are several ways to contribute to society, we just have to choose a suitable style for us.
Love
Love is the most powerful medicine. A person who is loved can give love to someone else unconditionally and lives a healthy and happy life. But as per the present societal norms, we all live the life of super expectations. We always expect from others.
Sherly Sandberg in her masterclass on “Resilience” defined the platinum rule of friendship is to “Treat the others in a way, they want to be treated themselves”.
This not just positively impacts someone, but it will also give a great sense of satisfaction. So stop being egoistic and love those who love and care for you. Start being empathetic and forgiving with yourself and others. Selfdom is the first sign of self-destruction, and you will not be happy if you always think onlyabout yourself.
Connect
Connect with yourself. Understand who you are, your weaknesses, fears, and strengths. Connect with yourself by your expressions, by your passions, by your hobbies. And most importantly connect with your mind and soul though meditation. Apparently, connecting with yourself is one of the most challenging things in present times because of our distracted mind, and lack of relaxation. If needed, follow the teachings of great saints.
But it is essential to connect with yourself to be a better version of yourself.
Care
To have compassion for living creatures is not just our social but also our constitutional duty. Therefore, we must understand our responsibilities and be kind to other creatures too, feeding a dog or bird or any other animal, or caring for plants and trees are pious jobs and we must do it regularly.
The choice is now ours, whether we want to live a quality life or live a life of pain and agony. Therefore, it is the time when we should introspect within ourselves and ask whether we are happy, if the answer is no, then there is a need to change something in ourselves, to make life happy and healthy. Stop being envious, ignorant, ruthless, and prideful. Understand the meaning of life and enjoy every moment.