Should We Fear Death?

in #life7 years ago

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The only certainty in life, is death.

It is the one moment that all living things must confront.


At one point in our lives, we learn of the perennial reality of death, and how absolute it is.
If you are lucky, you will have learned this earlier in life rather than late.
In order to truly appreciate our own lives, we must experience this realization of death.

Everyone has their own beliefs about what death will bring;
an afterlife, eternal darkness, reincarnation...

Yet it remains, and always will remain an unanswerable mystery.

Nothing we predict or hypothesize will change the fact that everyone will die, always.

This being true; death awaits everyone, so should we have any reason to fear it?

I don't believe there is


Most, if not all people have some sort of existential crisis at one point in their lives.

I remember clearly, I was 14.
I was on vacation in Mexico, taking a shower. It was one of the best vacations I had ever had.
I had no reason to worry or panic about anything; the feeling of bliss and relaxation transformed into fear.
Fearing an end to this dream vacation, I started to realize how quickly life passes you by.
I came to the realization that one day I will die, along with everyone I know and love.
It was in this moment, where I felt a fear I had never felt in my life.

True Fear

I thought of my loved one's and became filled with dread at the thought of losing them forever.
It was painful to think about, but it was inevitable.
Chills ran down my spine at the thought that one day I won't have a consciousness or any mind at all.
Just darkness, if it can even be called darkness.

This fear struck me numerous times after this vacation. For years almost, I had issues dealing with this fate.

Until one day, a friend of mine showed me a very enlightening perspective.


The sun rises and sets every day.
We know this to be inevitable, and being afraid of such happening would be foolish.
We cannot change the inevitable, therefore, being afraid of the inevitable is pointless.
Much like the sunrise, we are born into a new day. We do not fear the sunset, for it is always occurring. The moment the sun rises it begins to set.
Like our lives.
We live in the moment until we don't anymore.

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This realization was the first step in learning that fearing death is silly.
It is something we must confront.

We can spend our lives fearing one moment until that one moment comes and we realize we spent most of our life fearing this moment. That's no way to live.

Or

We can live in the moment, appreciate all we have, take risks.

Live


Live a fearless life.



THANKS FOR READING
Stay Awesome
-Zey

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I have been on the journey on questioning everything, I love this article and what it's trying to portray, but what if there was another path we could take a path less travelled. what if we could live indefinitely we just had to do specific things to bring that about. I guess just depends on how far we want to go down the rabbit hole. thanks for the read. It's funny how when we think about things it's like we mentally create them into existance and start suffering. one thing I have been reminding myself of is there is nothing wrong with right now ever unless i think about it. Its thinking that makes it so.

Thank you so much for the feedback!

It's funny how when we think about things it's like we mentally create them into existance and start suffering

This is very true. Overthinking is very dangerous, we often make ourselves worried or sick for no reasons other than worry itself.

Reminds me of a conversation I've recently had with someone...
It is something to think about, to realign ones perspective.
I just hope the things I've done leave this planet a better place.

Thanks for the post. I enjoyed the read.

That's all we can hope for.
Making the world a better place is what we should all strive to do.
I'm glad you enjoyed the post friend :)
Thank you for reading it.

Very wise. Thanks for sharing.

we only recognise wisdom because we are wise :)

Thank you, I wouldn't consider myself "wise" per say.
But, I try to learn what I can and share what I've found.

Only fear death.

fear itself is a waste of time :)