Living With Death in Mind

Meditations on death: Part 1

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Reading more Stoicism lately has me thinking about what it means to live a good life.

But also, what it means to acknowledge that our life is very short.

See, most people don’t like to think about the end of our life.

We distract ourselves from our mortality, but if we confronted it, it would help us live a much more meaningful life.

"You are living as if destined to live forever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don't notice how much time has already passed"

– Seneca

The Stoics talk a lot about contemplating death, and Memento Mori is the basis of those ideas. It’s the term we need to remember so we can reap all the benefits that living “with death in mind” has for us.

Memento Mori

Memento mori is a latin phrase that translates roughly to “remember you must die”, and it’s something the Stoics meditated on frequently.

And while thinking of death is uncomfortable at first, it’s a powerful guiding principle for how to live our lives.

In recent years people have used cliches like “YOLO” to illustrate the same thing.

But the problem is they have no idea what it actually means to live with death in mind.

They might say “YOLO” as they do something stupid, reckless, or destructive… but that’s not what living with death in mind means.

Living every day like it could be your last doesn’t mean hedonism, destroying your body, and living a life disconnected from consequence.

And it doesn’t mean we should live like nothing matters since,

“we’re all gonna die anyway”.

Those ideas miss the mark.

As I’ve gotten older and studied more philosophy, how I look at death has changed.

Here’s what living with death in mind means to me:

- Spend as much time with loved ones as possible

- Be present

- Hug more, kiss more, and love without limits.

- Don’t obsess over things like sports, drama, or politics.

- Feel endless gratitude for the time I’ve been granted

- Enjoy nature… The warmth of the sun, the coolness of the wind, the radiance of the plants and trees.

Living with death in mind doesn’t mean being obsessed with death and afraid of it…

Nor does it mean living a completely reckless life because it’s gonna end anyway.

It means acknowledging how precious our time is, and not wasting it on people or things that don’t serve us…

And it also means living a life of love, gratitude, and presence.

Because the present moment is all we ever truly have.

So today, don’t hesitate to tell your friends and family you love them.

And be thankful for the beautiful life you’ve lived so far, and the opportunity to make it even better with whatever amount of time you have left.

Even with all the ups and downs, there are many things to be thankful for, and we should think about them often.

Thanks for reading,

– Josh