Reasons to Remember Death

Perspective has been a big topic for me recently. I think it’s an important thing to have and can genuinely help people to live better lives. I mentioned this in my post: My Eulogy… a couple of days ago. It’s almost serendipitous (probably the incorrect word in this context…) that I find a video that builds upon this a couple of days later.

I have recently discovered the wonderful ‘School of Life’ videos. An unusual combination of entertaining, thoughtful and pragmatic; they explore philosophy, psychology, literature and art in order to help people live.

They state that they’re “devoted to emotional education”, the kind of things we’re never taught in school, but are essential to living life – love, work and being forgiving and patient with ourselves are some of the bigger topics they try to draw upon. If this sounds like you, I would thoroughly recommend looking at a couple of their videos.

At the time of writing they had just posted a video entitled ‘Reasons to Remember Death’. While it may seem (initially) quite a morbid topic to focus upon, it actually has a lot of power in focusing the mind and prioritising – much like writing one’s own Eulogy. We seem to almost obsess about issues that actually pale in comparison to the finality of death. Realising this can actually provide the perspective for us to live a little more freely, grasping the opportunity we have to do what we really want, and express how we really feel.

 

Writer’s Block

I was a little stuck on a topic to write tonight. What if I wrote something that people didn’t like? What if I posted something that people would judge me for? But then I remembered why I was writing this blog. I mean the primary reason, the reason I started this project and began typing in the first place: It is for me.

That’s it. A simple thought, but with a meaning I feel is grounded. A lot of content within social media, or blogs, or videos on YouTube, are rated by the number of ‘likes’ of ‘shares’ it gets. The more it gets, the more value it’s perceived to have – and that’s not what I’m trying to do here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get the ‘likes’, but it’s not the primary reason content should be produced. And that’s why the grounding thought was so valuable, it brought me back in focus.

It’s easy to get distracted by all the content out there, but having the piece of mind to stop every now and then, and to re-calibrate has begun to help me a lot recently. I suppose it comes down to what will matter in the end – will it make any difference if I post something that gets 100 likes or 0 likes? Probably not. But what will make a difference is if I write something that is true to how I’m feeling at the time. I’m being true to myself, in that moment. And surely that matters more.

 

My Eulogy…

It’s an uncomfortable task to begin with. Writing something that you were never meant to write. But writing your own eulogy is a great way to put things in life in to perspective.  

I do this every now and then; when I’m feeling a little ‘swept away’ by life – when I’m just going through the motions. 

Get up. Go to work. Have dinner. Sleep. Repeat until weekend. 

It’s probably a pattern that a lot of people can relate to. But setting some time aside every few months to check in and reflect can put things back into perspective. I mean, no one in their eulogy is going to mention about the time they did overtime at work to get that project finished. Even if it does feel like the most important thing in the world at that time, and it’s causing you so much stress and pressure. In the grand scheme of things,  it’s not important.  

What most people will mention is the impact that you have on the people around you. How you made them feel. How their life was made better by having you in it. Sometimes it helps to be reminded of that.