The truth, whether we want to admit it or not, is that most of our anxieties come from the fear of death.
At some point in life we become aware of death and the anxiety of it hits us.
Then we avoid it but modifying our experiences to keep anxieties low.
Especially in modern times.
Example: we worry that we can’t pay a bill and are hit with a wave of anxiety.
If you break it down and ask the question “and then what?” (Dr Hawkins method), it always ends in something like starving under a bridge with no money, house, etc.
Which is another version of death, or loss of control, because we are afraid that ultimately a loss of money, or an unpaid bill, will end in inhalation – death.
It may seem exaggerated, but we fear what we can’t control, and death is always at the end of it.
People mourn loved ones that pass on, but they forget and move on.
Most of it is denial.
Yes, we miss what that person brought to us and the world, but we don’t want to admit that we are mortal. That it will happen to us.
I don’t think we should sit around all day and “remind” ourselves of death, as some philosophies say, but we should be aware of it and then drop it.
Life is actually not short; go sit in a chair for 50 years and tell me life feels short.
Life is only short to those who don’t know how to live it.
It’s short to those who live in the mind, in thoughts, in the past and the future, instead of now.
Death should not be a motivation, it should just be a truth.
No motivation is needed when one knows how life works, knows the laws of life, and knows that the ebb and flow of life IS life.
Motivation from knowing you will die implies you need a “push” in order to live.
But no push is needed because life IS living, and it’s going on right now.
The reality is that we naturally fear death, but the truth is that it comes to everyone which proves there is no reason to fear it.
You can’t fear something that’s a sure bet.
When you realize this, you transcend death, in the sense that it doesn’t control you.
This is why the sages of the east say death is an illusion, because when you remove the hold it has over you, it now doesn’t “exist”.
Yes, Physical death will always exist, this is a fact, but the hold it has over us does not have to exist.
When anxieties hit, when you make a small situation into a mountain, remember that in most cases this is based off of fear, the fear of death.
And then ask yourself, as a being that will die at some point,
How much does this anxiety matter in the long run?
You know the answer.
Photo by Andrin Schranz