I’ve been crying every night before bed because it’s hard/nearly impossible for me to come to terms with the fact that my loved ones and pets will die eventually. Thinking about how one day I’ll be gone and how time will continue makes me cry. I don’t know how to get over this, it’s causing me great sadness. I’m currently in bed with tears flowing down my face. It’s so hard to accept that I only live once and I’ve had a terrible relationship with my family, and wasted many years being depressed. I love my cats, my nana, my boyfriend, and my parents. How can I accept this? Please
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it’s a long sleep until you go to heaven or hell.
It’s easy when you understand that there is no such thing as death. The chanel just changes and we
Continue to carry on forever. Forgetting and remembering. Over and over for eternity.
Such terrible responses by people so far, those who claim that there is afterlife and those who say that there is no such thing as death. When will people learn to grow up?
It doesn’t matter whether you accept it or not, it’s going to happen anyway.
Spending your life worrying about it just wastes the precious life you have been given.
So stop worrying about it and get on with living your life. Enjoy every moment. Show your friends and family you love them at every opportunity. Take every chance to experience new things.
You say you’ve wasted many years. Don’t waste any more years worrying. It does you no good and it doesn’t delay the inevitable.
Every single human and creature that has ever lived, and will ever live, shares the same fate. Isn’t that comforting? Even the greatest of the greats have all faced death. Famous Musicians, World Leaders, All of our Ancestors… We all go into that beyond together.
My therapist suggested just this week to try reading before bed, to get your mind off the heavy stuff. Give it a try, it might help you.
I am grieving the loss of my mother, my best friend. I take comfort in that when I die, I’ll go wherever she is… And if it’s good enough for her, then it’s good enough for me regardless.
To me, the shortness and fragility of life makes it more precious and valuable. Cherish the present, learn from the past and make exciting plans for the future. Death is coming for us all, whether we like it or not. We can do nothing about it. But we can choose to make the most of the time we have on this tiny ball in space. Cherish your time with experiences, they don’t have to be expensive or over the top, just keep moving forward.
It’s not comforting, but as death is inevitable, it doesn’t matter whether you accept it or not.
Which makes it more acceptable for me.
And before you say I’m being mean, my wife has stage 4 cancer so it’s something I will face far sooner than anyone wanted.
Edit to add: there is nothing I want to do less than accept the inevitability of death. But I have precisely zero choice about it, I might as well get upset that the sun sets every day. There are better things to concern myself about, like making sure the world is a better place wherever I can.
Whenever I feel like my life sucks, I think of pretty much every animal in nature. Every day, they are out there fighting and scrounging for food. Often fighting and killing their own species to get laid so that their genes live on. Having to be on constant alert because there is always some other animal that would just love to eat your flesh, with no regard to your feelings, hopes, or dreams. We have door dash and dating apps.
Everyone of us gets through this phase.
Actually no one can really help you with this, you have to get your own way to deal with this pain.
As a child it helped me that I heard of instances of people being close to death, who saw some kind of light.
You don’t need to be religious to maybe give life the chance to be something new and interesting after death.
Or a way of letting go.
You can do it! Many before you did. :3
Also you were fine when you didn’t existed. And you’ll be fine afterwards, when you return to the place you came from.
You’ll put the energy back to the world, who created you. :3
(also if you think in terms of atoms)
OP, death literally does not care if you accept it or not. One day you will die. Period.
You might as well stop worrying over something you cannot control.
Well, if it’s the “being dead” part that worries you more than the “not being alive” part, and if you don’t believe in an afterlife, then try to imagine what it was like before you were born. The entire world, and all its inhabitants, lived and moved around for several thousands of years before you showed up. Do you recall what it was like before you were born? Personally, I don’t remember any kind of inconvenience, or discomfort, or floating around in nothingness thinking “man, this sucks.” I just didn’t exist.
However, if you’re crying about how you’ll only have a finite amount of time on the earth, then the only thing to is to….cry. It’s absolutely tragic and this is the only sane and reasonable reaction, but countless people will never even think about it. They’ll just go on, being fully aware of the fact that they will die, yet still living day after day like they’ve got an infinite amount of time. Then one day, it’s gone, and that’s the real tragedy.
You, on the other hand, have realized just how short life actually is. This has also taught you how precious and beautiful life is, how invaluable a resource is your time to love, to be, and to experience. This level of awareness is a gift. Embrace this emotion! Lean into it every day, from sunrise to sunset, and be generous with all the love you have, and will surely, naturally lead you to living life in a way that gets you the most out of it. Do that, and you’ll live many times greater than most with even just a fraction of the time.
Dying is just returning to the state you was in before being born, you was like that for god knows how long, this is your little moment away from that state.
If it’s getting to the point that it’s impacting your daily life and causing severe grief (which it sounds like it is) you should probably seek professional help.
Death phobia, Death anxiety or thanatophobia is a recognised condition which can be treated with Behavioural therapy, CBT, psychoanalysis or even medication if necessary.
you are not alone, please seek help.
When I feel like this, I find Amanda Palmer’s “The Ride” comforting.
Death is not the end, there’s afterlife.
That’s called pre-grieving, a very harmful thing both towards you and everyone you love. You already feel that it’s no good because you can’t enjoy what you have in fear of what you will lose. Maybe it could help if you look into reincarnation. I can’t say if it’s true or not, for me it feels real. And if it is then there is no finality. We circle around and around again and again.
I deal with this too. But I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder + OCD, so it’s just one of the many things I stress over obsessively and can’t stop. Nothing anyone has ever said has actually been comforting. There are 2 things I’m trying, to help me deal with it the best I can:
If you are living afraid of death, youre not really living. You cant change anyone else and if they dont care to have a good relationship, learn to let them go. Find some good books to read and learn some healthy coping skills.
Life is too short to worry about what you have no control over.
I’m sorry you’re upset. You have to get to a point where you focus on having fun and spending time with your family, friends and pets, now, while they’re here because everything that lives, also dies. If you do nothing but cry about them dying, you’ll waste the time you could be spending with them, only for them to die anyway.
So spend as much time as you can with people you love who love you, too. If you have people in your life that treat you badly, don’t spend time with them. Your time is too precious to spend it with mean people. Play with your pets, cuddle them and let them know you love them. Ask your nan questions about her life, really get to know her. Tell her you’re happy she’s in your life and that you love her. Same with your boyfriend. Comfort yourself by knowing you’ve spent as much quality time with everyone that you can.
You’re smart enough to realise the impermanence of all things but not wise enough to accept it. Be wise.
Living in regret, only ruins your present and your future, which in turn leads to more regret. It’s a vicious cycle. I’ve lost years because of this. Don’t make that mistake. Stop obsessing and ruminating over this. With time you’ll realise how silly and useless it is.
Go outside, eat a banana, look at green trees, look at the horizon, take a deep breath, stop thinking and just chill the fuck out.
I recommend a series on Netflix called, The Midnight Gospel. It deals with many issues of acceptance, death, forgiveness, spirituality and meaning. It’s oddly violent and incredibly surreal animation in extreme contrast to what’s being discussed. If it’s too much, close your eyes and just listen. It’s quite profound and beautiful.
I used to worry about this all the time, I still do to an extent, but last Thursday the first pet my wife and I adopted together was run over. Now all I care about it making the time with my remaining pets as good as I can, because there are lots of things I wish I could change about how I was with my poor cat. These sort of feelings are natural, and really hard to shake, but while you’re worrying, it could suddenly happen, or it could take years. Just make the time you have now count.
Good luck rejecting it
You’ve discovered the concept of “Memento Mori”. It’s scary and beautiful all at once. Wikipedia can explain much better than I can, but basically you realize that life is short and it ends and we have a finite time here and with the people we love. It’s sad but it can be a beautiful realization if you let it because it allows you to focus on the things that really matter instead of wasting the precious time you do have. It allows you to intentionally spend your time.
For example, I saw you have regrets about your past relationship with your dad but in your post you expressed your love for your parents, so if you’re looking to repair and move forward, you now have time to work towards that. If I’m misinterpreting that, you can cut him out of your life and focus on the other people you mentioned and your pets and other activities and goals that bring you joy because you’ve now realized that life is too short to spend with people who do not bring you happiness.
I have severe OCD, depression, and anxiety and death is something I think about a lot. I hate that I have spent a lot of time depressed and anxious, so I know this is all easier said than done. But it’s certainly something I can come back to when I start spiraling.
“Accept” isn’t just to ignore.
You need to understand that this is existence. Life and everything in it has a beginning, and it has an end.
Endings are as important as beginnings, and in a way, they give meaning and value to every moment.
Time is the single most precious thing you have.
Accepting this isn’t to focus on endings of all things – it is to focus on the value of every moment. Not every second needs to be skydiving and parties, but every dull second waiting for a pick up can be spent in appreciation and have meaning.
Choose. Choose what you spend your time on and who you choose to spend it with. Accept that whether today or in 50 years, your relationship with your boyfriend will end – and that in a decade or two or three your youth will too. This means that you would not want to spend it in pain, in arguments, in depression or in sadness of impending doom. You want to talk to your parents and experience them as much as you can. You want to talk to your nana and hear about her life from her – her loves, her growing up and her lessons.
When things pass in life – school, first love, college, pets, relatives, relationships and experiences – you will have the memories and their impact imprinted on you.
My grandfather passed so long ago, and I got to know him for so little time – but he will never stop living in the experiences shared and memories made. The only advice worth taking is that you want to collect as many of these as you can for the time you have for each.
Hey, is it possible you’re feeling depressed and these are thoughts related to that?
Try to celebrate the good times together and not that they will or have died.
When my Dad past away, my brother and I recounted the many great and funny things at his funeral. He led a great and varied life and we celebrated the good times together. Some of the stories we told had the mourners laughing instead of crying.
Live until you die
For your pets.. you can take some small comfort that you are the one who will lose them, not the other way around—hear me out, I went through this a little over a year ago.
When your pet dies, you will understand that it was nature. You will mourn, you will process, you will always remember, and in time life will go on. You may even get a new pet, or not, it depends on how you feel in the future.
You will never forget your pet, and you will know that they died—they didn’t run away, didn’t stop loving you, they just died.
But if you die before your pet, your pet won’t understand. Your pet will wonder why you went away, and if they did something wrong. They will wonder what they can do to make you come back and love them again. They will never stop wondering.
It’s hard to lose a pet, but in the end, it’s better to lose a pet, than for a pet to lose their human.
So… we dont exactly know what consciousness is. It doesn’t seem to be tied to the physical brain, because people can have entire chunks of their brain removed without losing much of any of their functionality and consciousness.
Then consider that according to physics, energy and matter are never “lost” they just become spread out is different forms. As such, the “energy” that makes up “you” is never lost, it just becomes another form.
You may not be aware of your existence, but everything that makes you “you” will continue to exist. So in a way, you will never truly cease to be. Your consciousness may be gone, it may not (without an understanding of what consciousness actuality is, we can’t 100% say), but “you” will continue to be.
And if you have children, a part of you will continue i live on in them. But regardless, you’ll continue to be in a different form.
People have given some really good advice but I would like to say that this is a known and common worry/anxiety that humanity faces and has been facing for millions of years since our inception. This is one of the reasons why religions got created . If you keep the problematic parts aside ,religious books give a lot of deep guidance and thought into it . I am not particularly religious but Gita book from Hinduism has detailed chapters on this . If you vibe more with say Bible,Quran,Torah i am sure those books also have detailed information on this topic . Even if you are atheist, reading another perspective might give you food for thought . Why am I am saying this ? Through reading and reading about this topic in Gita , I have become quite comfortable with the concept of death, loss and the inevitability of things in our life . The perspective helped me, someone who is not traditional or conservative or a strong believer of religion per say . I understand the good parts and ignore any part which appears problematic to me . I don’t follow the ideology of either believe everything 100% or not at all. I use wisdom from my past generations which are shared in these books and then use my brain to come to conclusion . Give it a try , maybe something will resonate with you .
Look up “The egg” short story by Andy Weir. There’s a really good reading of it on YouTube by Kurzgaesagt. I find it pretty comforting to think of all the different possibilities that could happen
Just think of life before you were born…you did not exist. You will return to that. No biggie
Study stoicism
Death is the only certainty there is to life, that it has to come to an end. That said, you can either cry about something that will happen somewhen in the future, or live the now.
You will have more days being alive than being dead, you live everyday untill you die, which will be just one day,then you wont have that preocupation anymore.
My grandfather died last Wednesday, i miss him very much, but i am happy i got to live with him, and thats what matters.
I know exactly how you feel, even reading through all the comments here sets off some crazy anxiety within me when I think about the death of myself and loved ones. I guess it’s a little push to make better use of the time I have and appreciate the moments we share.. but my god is it daunting
You are not living in the present for thinking about something you can’t change. That will make worst when your loved ones pass away, stop wasting energy living in the future and start living in the present.
Present is not just a time, we use the same word as a gift meaning, right know is a gift, live it and enjoy it.
A few years ago I had an existential crisis for a few months where I threw up from the anxiety multiple times a day and quite literally could not go more than 3 minutes without thinking about death and dying and I’d never been so truly depressed where I literally didn’t see a point to liking or loving anything and just didn’t care about anything but also cared way too much about anything.
What’s helped me first of all is establish what I believe will happen after death. I’m very spiritual so it’s something along those lines. The show surviving death on Netflix helped me a lot in that regard.
And what I do now is if I start to get antsy if I think about it too long, I literally just tell myself to think about it later. This is what ultimately broke my obsessive cycle. I’m not dying at the current moment and nobody else is either so why think about it at this exact moment. I’m just figuring (and hoping) that if I push it off for long enough, I won’t care so much about it once I’m older lol.
Hope this helps. I know how debilitating it can be.
Magic mushrooms
You may want to bring your serotinon levels up. Talk to a professional.
The way I deal with this is to focus on the time I have with them now or had with them in the past, rather than the time I will lose when they are gone.
There is beauty in impermanence. Each moment with the people you love is infinitely precious precisely because you do not have forever.
Lmao all the comments are “just don’t.” Or “it doesn’t matter if you do, it’s happening” like… wow! So fucking helpful!
I also lost many years to depression and it sometimes feels that now that I am “old” (30) I wasted most of my life and there is no reason to even go on.
But I realized there is a truth about “you can have a positive impact on others life just by existing”. I was waiting to cross a street on a sunny day and this stranger just smiled at me and said “what a beautiful day it is to be alive today” and then just went on his way. And it just got me out of my dark thought circle. I want to make my life matter, have a positive impact on people, on the environment. Sometimes the smallest things make a change. It is a reason for me to go on and also not fear death. I want to have a life that mattered so I must not be afraid when the time comes. I guess my advice to overcome the fear is to find purpose.
If you can, please please try therapy. This is the kind of things they study to help people with, and it might give you some useful coping mechanisms.
Asides from therapy, something that helps me personally when I’m feeling like this is, unironically thinking of The Good Place. If you haven’t watched that show, give it a try, speaking about death is part of its ethos. It will not seem like it at first, but it does get there, and it has left me personally with coping tools for that anxiety
It sounds like you are still depressed, though you are not alone in understanding and comprehending the passage of time.
You get more than one life. You won’t remember this life when you live again.
In my view, that which makes us has always existed and will continue to exist. Our consciousness is a byproduct of neural activity, and when we die, our matter/energy disperses and we simply “return” to the universe. Nothing we do here matters in the grand scheme, so we might as well do what we enjoy.
The idea of nonexistence is incomprehensible and rightly terrifying. It’s okay to grieve this, but focus on enjoying each moment and relishing those in your life now.
I like to think about the existential horror of not dying. Imagine living forever. you outlive your friends and family, eventually humanity in general, then Earth when explodes you just go hurtling through the endlessness of space. Cold, empty, dark. Imagine how bored you’d be!
I think it’s a good topic to work through in therapy.
Just think why would you want to live forever? Eventually everything ends. In a few billion years, even Earth will disappear. Live the moment and don’t think about the inevitable.
For a lot of us, eventually, living will be hard enough that death starts looking pretty good. It’s the belief that all death, even natural death, is bad and life is good that has you convinced that you should be sad about it.
But, more than death, isn’t regret what has you all bent out of shape? If so, shouldn’t you be doing the things you feel like you’re going to regret not doing? Rather than lamenting the things you can’t change, why not exercise whatever agency you have making the rest of your finite time here on earth as regretless as possible? The crying isn’t going to turn away the reaper; if anything, it’ll bring him on quicker.
The older you get, the easier it is to accept.
Lots of people will tell you that you have to find a way to accept it. They’ll give you all sorts of useless platitudes about death’s “inevitability” or how we all have to go through it or whatever other justification they have for giving in to their own despair.
The truth is it’s all bullshit. They haven’t really accepted it, they’ve just chosen to ignore it or otherwise convinced themselves that it’s not worth doing anything about. You shouldn’t just accept it. Nobody should. Life may have no inherent meaning but that doesn’t mean existence isn’t desirable. We shouldn’t have to end because of a genetic fluke, which is all death really is. It’s a small, small thing that cascades into permanent nothingness.
As far as practical advice is concerned, or as practical as I can give not knowing who you are:
Take control of your life. Do not let your fear of death stop you from living. Learn to hate death so strongly that you live in opposition to it. Exist simply to exist. Stay as healthy as you can. Eat well. Exercise. Socialize. Do things that you find satisfying and fulfilling. Enjoy everything you can to the fullest extent you are able to. Find as much value as possible in as many aspects of existence as you can make available to yourself. Hold on to as many of them as you can and never, ever let them go. And if the moment comes that these things you value are being taken away, fucking fight it with all you’ve got!
Also, you should know that there are people who do not see death as inevitable and are working to prove it. Lots of research is being done into increasing the longevity of life with the ultimate goal of human immortality. While it’s impossible to put a precise date on when these things will be available, as the research is still ongoing, the people most educated in this subject almost all agree that it’s less an “if” and more a “when”. That said, be critical of any pop-sci articles claiming we’ll achieve human immortality in any certain amount of time or by a certain date. These are largely speculative and hardly informing.
A likely outcome is that we’ll see substantial increases in overall life-span first and that will then lead to an increasing effect in whatever methods are used to do so to the extent that our life-spans effectively become limitless. It’s also possible (and perhaps likely) that, over time, entirely new methods are invented that make immortality even more accessible.
I strongly urge you (and everyone else, really) to look into this. And if you can contribute, please do. Human history is filled with pointless struggles for nonsense reasons but this is a fight that’s actually worth it. A fight for our literal existence.
“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
I still have a hard time with this topic, but shrooms helped me a lot in accepting death.
I saw you’re looking for books, so I really want to recommend Thích Nhất Hạnh’s explanation of the heart sutra. It’s a short little book and it pretty much focuses on the beauty that’s in both life and death. It definitely made me get a little more at peace with mortality.
As someone who has experienced a good amount of loss early on, I’ve come to a conclusion which has helped me over the years: There are only two possible outcomes when we leave this life; either there is absolutely nothing and we return to the oblivion from which we came, or alternatively, there is an afterlife where everyone before us has ascended to, which therein, signifies everlasting life and continuity. If the first is true, then it just doesn’t matter because you and everyone you’ve ever known will not care. If the second is true, then you would go to the same place everyone else has, including your loved ones. Try not to worry, but rather enjoy the here and now because it is so infinitesimally short compared to the time before and after, which is assuredly one of the two alternatives above.
Yep, so eat a loaf of garlic bread for dinner and have a second helping of desert..then get on with life.
For myself, I view life as eternal-like. I know of nothing before and if I know nothing after then all I have is an ever-present now.
As for loved ones aging and dying, I view it as actors leaving the stage. I try not to focus on the sadness of never seeing them again and instead on the thankfulness I feel for having known and loved them.
We probably can’t help death and the truth is we don’t have any evidence to support an afterlife. These things we most likely can’t change, but what we can all change is our perspective and how we view things. I didn’t wait billions of years for life just to spend it feeling down about death. I choose to view it as a gift and experience whatever I can while I can.
I agree, that is a fact I am also sad about. What comforts me is the fact that the people I hate will also die, just like the people generally bad for the world.
Accept it or don’t. Its going to happen either way.
Enjoy it.
You don’t get a choice so why waste the energy worrying.
Know that when you are dead, you won’t be around to care. It is literally nothing to be afraid of. As far as your loved ones dying, yes, that sucks, but it happens to all of us, and we move on. That’s just life.
And as one of the top comments pointed out, if you spend every day bawling and worrying about death, you’re just wasting what life you have.
Did you worry about the passage of time before you where born?
It’s useful to ask yourself what not accepting it will achieve. Will it stop the passage of time? Make you happier? Improve your present?
And then it’s time to see a psychotherapist, because your reaction is obviously causing you great pain.
I feel like this is at the bottom of the list of your problems.
Honestly, as morbid as it sounds, what helped me the most was the sudden loss of my dad.
It helped me put everything into perspective and even realize my own mortality.
I know this doesn’t provide the comfort you are probably seeking. Life is about what you make with the time you have, and unfortunately, it’s limited for everyone.
For me, I have found more and more comfort in the natural cycle of the world. We all are a part of it and experience it no matter our status or place or location in life. We are not just dying, we are returning to the earth to be immortalized in it’s essence again. Our loved ones will always be surrounding us because the earth has taken them back and we are surrounded by life cycles they helped continue.
If you are not already, I really hope you seek some therapy because it sounds like this is really affecting your life. My terrible relationship with my family haunted me for a long time. I would often think things like “what if my mom dies suddenly and we weren’t on good terms at that time.” It’s led to some precarious choices. Take care of yourself and celebrate the loved ones you have that surround you and care for you. You deserve it.
ETA that this made me seriously consider whether animals consider dying or think about death, or if they just live life and death hits them one day, never haunting them before their time.
The only comfort I can offer is that I died briefly in the hospital and would never have known if they hadn’t told me after I was revived. You’ll never know you are dead or experience that grief. It’s hard to get your head around, but it’s just like before you were born. The experience released me from a lot of fear in all areas on my life.
Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.
Don’t feel bad. For a long time. You and I never existed. Then we did. It happened once. Maybe it can happen again. It’s possible we exist in a never ending spiral of birth and death. Suffering is unavoidable. You can’t outrun pain. If you try, the pain will just follow you.
If that’s true it means it’s super important to live a full life without fear. If you’re going to do this forever make it a life worth suffering for. Always love others when you can. Love is our weapon against suffering. It can provide purpose.
If you woke up each day sore bruised and exhausted you would break down in tears and maybe make a serious decision to stop the pain.
But what if instead you learned you suffer these bruises and pain because you are training for the Olympics. Same pain. Different perspective. Now the pain is no longer suffering. We must do that in our lives completely.
Death is what makes life worth living. There’s an end. Take advantage of the time you have. On a larger scale, human ambition comes from the inevitable conclusion of life. How easy would it be to leave the difficult things you must do “until tomorrow” if there was no end? Every modern convenience you have was made possible by people that HAD to improve things. That’s made possible by death. It’s what gives us purpose.
“What we do in life, echoes in eternity.”
You and I might go some day, and the universe will forget who we were and what we did, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t left our mark.
For some, that mark is their children. The knowledge that their genetics will continue on in some fashion and without their existence, those genes would not be impacting the future.
For others, like myself, it is our achievements.
I make videogames for a living, I’ve created features (small though they may individually be) that hundreds of thousands of people have interacted with. That has shaped their experiences in however small a way. Maybe my feature made someone happy, maybe it made them upset, maybe they never even noticed it (which is it’s own silent badge of achievement if the alternative would have been a negative emotion), but however they felt about it…their experience was altered. Maybe it didn’t impact their lives in any tangible way, but maybe it did?
Maybe a good feature brought a smile at just the right moment to stave off tragedy? A couple games I’ve worked on have received the random amazingly tear jerker email from someone who wanted to thank us for the game being thing that stood between them and suicide, having already decided to end things…but wanting to see something in the game pay off before they did, and that delay was just long enough for them to get the help they needed to keep going.
Maybe a bad feature brought on tragedy that I’ll never hear about? That little thing that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and caused unforgivable words to be said, relationships or friendships destroyed or worse.
I’m also a science fiction nerd, and one of the things that I think about often is that whenever humanity does get around to sending out starships (be they generation ships or something a bit faster), they’ll be bringing a cultural library with them. Most of the games I’ve been on have not been considered among the greats, but at least one is still actively played by a huge audience a decade on after release and often cited in “Top Ten games that…” lists. Which means in all likelihood, at least something I’ve had a hand in directly will be brought to the stars, even if only in a historical database.
I will never go willingly to the end, my motto is “Those who aren’t playing for immortality are playing to lose.” after all, but whenever my end should arrive, I can go knowing that though I almost certainly have no children, I’ve left my mark upon the world and there’s no way anyone or anything can erase it.
Maybe you were nothing before you were born and will be nothing when you die, but if that’s true, you already became a person from nothing what’s to say you won’t again.
The thing about death is no one knows what’s on the other side of it, many people will tell you that they do, but no one does.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls
This happens to me since I became 20 years old. I never struggled with that until now. I don’t have a solution but you are not the only one.
Read Eckhart Tolle books.
I know it sounds so condescending and easier said than done, but you just do. A school of thought that I really like is that life is so precious because it’s finite, knowing it ends should be a message to never take a single moment for granted. And the best way to do that, at least I think is to be IN the moment. Don’t worry about things that’ll happen in the future, just think of how great the time you’re having with your loved ones are. Sorry, I hope that advice at least makes some sense, and not just me telling you “Just do it.”
If you ask people would you like to live forever most would say no. It’s comforting that we will get to rest permanently and hopefully you will have a long and happy life with those you love.
Worrying does nothing but stress you out. It doesn’t prepare you or make the situation better.
You can do things to better your life, maybe extend your life.
Go exercise. You’ll have a longer, better life. Go on a walk. Or exercise in your home. Pull up exercises on YouTube. There’s loads of free stuff that require no equipment.
Weep not that I am gone, smile because I lived and was loved”
I’m paraphrasing a quote because I can’t remember it properly.
It basically means that you shouldn’t worry about them being dead some day, because we all share the same fate.
Every living thing that there has ever been, and ever will be, has died or will die some day.
It also means that, because our time is short, make the most of the time you have, and think of them fondly, even after they’re gone.
Appreciate them while they’re here, and enjoy remembering them when they are not.
I like to think of it like this. The Universe existed for an unfathomable amount of time, but it didn’t know it. And then, a small part of the Universe knew itself. And you’re one of those parts, and your perspective is unique, and finite. You became aware for a time, and in time your awareness will end. You can share a nearness of perspective with others. For some your awareness overlaps a long time, and others, a short time.
Not sure dude I have a phobia of death the best thing I have found is it tell myself and convince myself life extension tech will happen in my lifetime and I wont need to die so why worry about it.
Helps me focus on the day to day but this isn’t applicable when it’s the death of others I kinda got past this by having so many deaths in the family that I got numb to it.
So I guess :/ trial by fire may be the only option I hope you get better ways cause ugh don’t recommend
Even if u don’t, it still will