Memento Mori: Embracing Death to Live a Meaningful Life

You could die today. You may cease to exist next time you leave the house. Death surrounds us whether we acknowledge it or not. People die of illness, in car crashes, in falls. They die young and unexpectedly and it could happen to you.

Death is something we aren’t comfortable talking about it. The problem is we have a finite amount of time, and each day we wake we are another step closer to our deaths- another step closer to not existing. Our ego diverts our attention away from this because it is contrary to the comfortable delusion that we will not die, that we are the exception. But death is natural, it will happen to all of us and everyone we know

The Stoics had a different approach to death. In Stoicism, ‘Memento Mori’ (remember that you will die), is a symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death. Memento Mori can free us from the fear of death, instead allowing us to befriend death- to allow it to become our motivator and a source for meaning and purpose.

Let’s say that next time the sun sets, you will draw your last breath- how will you spend your time? Do you think you would waste that time? Perhaps instead, you would connect and be fully present with your loved ones, relishing every moment with them. You would truly aware of your surroundings- admiring the blueness of the sky and feeling the wind on your face. And you will love yourself fully, not just despite your failures, but because of them.

In this way, Memento Mori brings us into the present, a gateway to living the life the way you’ve always wanted to live it, because there is not enough time to delay. Death doesn’t care if you have unfinished business- it’s taken people younger than you are, richer than you are, and more beautiful than you are. It is indiscriminate.

I challenge you to change your view on death by using Memento Mori in your everyday life. Death is going to free us today.

Memento Mori is giving you permission to slow down and enjoy the warm cup of morning coffee you normally smash back, because it might be your last coffee.

Memento Mori is giving you permission to be fully present and relish your time with your friends, because it may be your last time with them.

Memento Mori is giving you permission to start projects you constantly put off, you say “I can always start later,” but what if there is no later?

Memento Mori is giving you permission to forgive yourself for the past because you might take your self-resentment to the grave.

Seeing this as depressing is missing the point- see it as a way to create meaning, presence, and joy in your life. Make this your form of meditation for the week and see how it changes your entire outlook. In the words of Leo Tolstoy, “perhaps you have half a century before you die, what makes this any different from half an hour?”