Lvl 89: Death is Inevitable

Your time could come to an end. You could get infected. You could die to respiratory failure. Or you could walk down the street and get hit by a car-- someone rushing to grab toilet paper. Heck, you could even...fall off the couch and die. But whatever, it's all good. While this whole pandemic makes it, if anything, more obvious that you could face your own death, the fact of the matter is, death is always looming above you. Every day. Global pandemic or not. Today could be your last day on Earth. And that's always the case. It's just now more evident than ever with this massive viral outbreak. Now I know, that may sound rather morbid and depressing, but only if you entirely miss the point. I mean I get it. No one likes to think about the fact that they could die at any given moment. But what's the alternative? To think you are immortal? To believe you are immune to fate? To conclude you're the exception to this universal rule and have time as an unlimited resource? No. See, awareness of your own death, your own mortality, allows you to focus on things that actually fucking matter. It motivates you to make the best of what you have, while you're here -- to appreciate the little things you typically take for granted and go after your goals you want to achieve, to build genuine connections with other people. It is in knowing your permanent sleep is inevitable that wakes you up. In short, thinking of your own death allows you to think about how you want to live before it inevitably comes to an end. As we're sitting here in lock down, you may think to yourself: "I guess my "normal" life wasn't so bad. There was actually a lot to appreciate, a lot I took for granted." All this time, you were "dead". Heart still beating, yes. Lungs still breathing, indeed. But dead in the mind, going through the motions without consciously experiencing them. And we all tend to do that. We all tend to look at our smartphones instead of the world around us. We all do things on "auto-pilot". We have the same conversations with the same people, without a genuine connection. We do the same tasks every single day, without taking notice to the little details that are different. We get frustrated easily when our routine is set off course by some minor interruption, when really these unexpected circumstances are the only time we are truly alive because for once in a great blue moon, we actually have to be in the moment, live, instead of simply exist. You might have even been regretful about the past or worried about the future, all while failing to notice what's actually going on around you in the present. You will die one day and it will all be over. Use that as inspiration to focus on what matters RIGHT NOW, in the present. Use that as encouragement to stop living as a mindless machine and start living as...an actual human being! A human being who is conscious and aware of the life that s/he is living. There are two promises we are given in life 1) There will always be change 2) You will die some day The key is to make the best of those unpredictable changes before you reach your predictable death. There's a phrase that dates back to the time of Socrates: Memento Mori, which means "Remember Death". For centuries, philosophers have meditated on their own mortality, on the fact that their time in this current reality which we are experiencing is in fact limited. Whether you believe in entering the Gates of Paradise or Reincarnating as a Sloth or just turning to dust after death, is a pointless debate. What we can all agree on is that Death means the end of THIS current experience. So make the best of it. Read the full blog http://www.procrastin8r.com/blog/coronadeath Subscribe to the Newsletter: http://www.procrastin8r.com/subscribe