What’s Spookier then Death?
Photo by Ahmed Adly
With the spirit of spooky season upon us I decided to make this week’s topic all about our collective fear of death.
Hehe.
Happy Halloween.
As a society, we have a constant fear of dying. We’re terrified we
(or one of our loved ones) might keel over at any moment. Death is our most basic, most primitive fear above all else.
Once upon a time for humans our day to day was this constant drama of life or death. It was a reasonable and most prevalent fear.
“Oops, I ate a poisonous berry. Oops, I fell off a mountain. Oops, the lion ate Larry again.”
Bam. Dead.
Our fear of death was once an asset, keeping us alive and aware of our surroundings. Our brains evolved to hold the idea of death at the forefront of our consciousness.
Now it’s become a bit of a nuisance.
With the comforts and advantages in science and in our society we aren’t facing these death traps daily anymore—we’re much safer and living longer than we ever have before.
But our brain’s fear of death hasn’t gone anywhere, it just looks a little different.
Now it looks like overanalyzing and overthinking. It looks like imagining the worst case scenario so we can feel emotionally prepared for catastrophes. It looks like intense anxiety in unfamiliar places.
It looks like self doubt, self sabotage, and procrastination because the idea of going out and actually doing things makes us feel like we might really die.
The irony is that we are also simultaneously operating under the impression that death will never truly come for us.
As if we have all the time in the world…
In all of our pretending that death won’t really come, coupled with our hidden fear of it underneath the surface, one truth persists:
As long as we continue to refuse to confront the reality and neutrality of death, we will continue to waste the majority of our valuable time here on earth with distractions, procrastination, and complacency.
Instead of more of that garbage, I’m suggesting something different.
I’m suggesting we confront our fear of death, we contemplate it more often, we accept the complete lack of control we have over when it will happen and surrender.
The idea of confronting death can feel uncomfortable, maybe even a little scary.
But the fact that our time here in these physical bodies is finite and could end at any moment outside of our control is just that, a fact.
As I’ve taught before facts are 100% neutral. They mean nothing until our human brain applies meaning to them.
So why do we automatically turn death into a catastrophic, unacceptable fate?
Why do we spend our entire lives fearing and resisting something that is as natural and ordinary as a leaf falling in autumn?
Why do we make death mean something so negative and associate it with horror stories?
I have decided to stop resisting this fear and to begin embracing it instead.
Not because I’m a glutton for grief, but because I recognize the power that lies in consciously applying meaning to the facts of life.
For me, death is no longer a morbid, spooky thing to contemplate. I have decided it’s the natural next step for our physical bodies as well as a returning home for our souls.
There’s nothing for me to be afraid of.
And remembering this often is one of the most powerful forces of motivation when it comes to going after my desires.
When I am pretending like death isn’t coming for me, when I remain afraid and resist facing this truth, I don’t do anything.
I don’t set goals. I don’t accept change. I don’t move forward.
I don’t live a full life.
I just go through the motions. I just put off my dreams.
I settle into the familiar instead of adventuring out into the new.
To me, this is unacceptable.
We are here to create. To thrive. To do incredibly scary, amazing things while we can.
But if we are completely preoccupied and consumed by the fear of our own death, we prevent ourselves from our one true purpose in these bodies:
really living.
Death is every living being’s fate.
Before fate arrives, I suggest you start to really live.
