Today, we continue our Dadly Daily Declaration series with readings from The Passion Paradox by authors Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. So far, Stulberg and Madness have discussed the pitfalls of passion and the sole focus of pursing your passion. Today’s reading focuses on a technique to become self-aware and avoid the pitfalls of becoming too encompassed in your passion: Focus on your death.
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Here are a few gems from today’s reading:
- There is one final way to reliably gain perspective, and it’s perhaps even more powerful than any of the strategies discussed: thinking about death. There is no greater reminder that our time is finite, no better mechanism to focus us in on what we really want out of life, than reflecting on our own impending end.
- At one point or another, all of us will have experiences that make us confront our own mortality. But we shouldn’t necessarily wait for them. We should somewhat regularly reflect on mortality instead. Many people don’t like thinking about death because it makes them uneasy, but you should do it more often. Keeping death at the forefront of your mind is one of the best ways to ensure you live the life you want to live.
- The Buddhist practice of the Five Remembrances is a practical way to gain the perspective that death affords. Once a week, perhaps during your Friday-afternoon commute, devote just five minutes to reflecting on the fact that: You are of the nature to grow old. You are of the nature to have ill health. You are of the nature to die. All that is dear to you is of the nature to change. Your actions are your only true belongings; they are the ground upon which you stand.
- Nothing makes us more self-aware or focuses us on what really matters more than realizing what we experience as our “self” won’t be around forever. That we are each just a speck of dust passing through the universe. Reminding ourselves of this is the ultimate form of zooming out.
Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
Thinking about your death goes a long way to ensure you are consciously choosing how you spend your time and energy, that you never lose sight of the fact that time is both finite and the most precious resource there is. Another way to think of this practice is that you want to go to bed every night being content with what you did that day, as if you don’t know whether you’ll wake up the next morning.
How do you want to be remembered? What actions do you want to contribute to the world?
I Am Dadly highly recommends the book The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh.
