Life Affirming Death Awareness

Living while dying – Notes from the resistance

“It’s precisely because we’re finite that life is so sweet.” – Sheldon Solomon Last month I got the opportunity to meet Ady Barkan, a progressive activist who’s become one of the most powerful voices in the fight to move the United States to a universal healthcare system, sometimes dubbed “Medicare for All”.  The meeting took place at… Read more »

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The Sweet Spot: Relief from the Fear of Death through Mindfulness

If you have ever lain awake in the middle of the night pondering death, heart racing, icy hot fear coursing through your body as your mind tries desperately to find solid ground, you are not alone. Let me say that again: You are not alone. On the most basic level, you are not alone, because… Read more »

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The Impact of Death on our Everyday Lives

The conscious or unconscious fear of death can alter many aspects of behavior. Most people, including mental health specialists, have failed to recognize the full significance of the impact of death on life.  The fear of death arises as each child becomes aware of death’s inevitability.  It is too painful to face our personal mortality… Read more »

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Life-Affirming Death Awareness

When I was a teenager, I realized that most people were living as though death did not exist. I saw men and women trivializing their relationships and lives with petty arguments and melodramatic reactions to insignificant events, while failing to notice basic issues of personal identity and ignoring existential realities. Their passivity, conformity, and inward… Read more »

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Creating Meaning by Facing Our Mortality

“The irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive.” ― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death As humans, our awareness of death is inherent. When confronted… Read more »

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