If you wrote your own obituary what would you want it to say? What would others write in your obituary? What would be the truth in your obituary today?

Here’s your activity:

Close your eyes and breath into your belly center. Relax and open your heart. Picture a future newspaper (it could be digital!) capturing a summary of your life, your best qualities and those who cared about you most written in a few paragraphs. Picture your friends, family and coworkers as they congregate in your memory. What are they saying? What are they feeling? What are they doing?  What impact did you have on their lives and the lives of others? What is the legacy you left? Allow your mind and your body to open to all of the sensations, emotions, and experience of this visualization. When you feel complete, bring your activity to a close.

Too often our energy for life legacy stops after we execute our estate documents. It is entered into as a task to complete rather than a process to explore and gain wisdom. We might act as if we will live in this body forever, even though intelligence says otherwise. Knowledge is not the issue; embodiment is the opportunity. Our lack of recognition that our lives are impermanent creates mindlessness – letting days pass by mindlessly doing and moving mindlessly. We have precious little time to consciously create. Even the greatest men and women – our heroes and heroines (masterminds, artists, athletes, presidents and teachers) all die. These truths are both humbling and motivating. We see the thread of our web of life and how interconnected we are to all of those around us and to all of those who have come before us.

Life Legacy is one of the branches on the Colman Knight Oak tree. It represents a life well lived and documents – both measurable and in spirit – your life intentions. It is likely you are familiar with traditional estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care proxies. You may be less familiar with ethical wills, last love letter and other non-legal forms of leaving a legacy.

A legacy formulates from what you have received and given both internally and externally during life. As a person, legacy is created through love you show others, sharing your passions, comforting others in times of hardship or making people laugh. These qualities leave an imprint, never forgotten. A legacy is also what has been externally accumulated and given freely – leaving your children debt free from college, creating a foundation dedicated to a noble cause, traveling memories from joyous journeys with your friends and family or passing down your real property that holds memories. In its totality, legacy reflects the pieces of our lives and who we were in the world. A great legacy doesn’t require being famous to millions of people, but rather having a deep connection and impact to at least a few. Every person touched by your presence, energy and generosity integrates into the actions of that person and each ripple continues over and over and over again.

Considering your heroes and heroines, who have all left a legacy in an imprint on you, what legacy are you living? What legacy will you leave behind? What legacy would you like to leave behind?

Resources: Ethical Will, Last Love Letter