[Universal Credit]

http://machineslikeu...-lead-good-life

Thinking about death can lead to a good life

Thinking about death can actually be a good thing. An awareness of mortality can improve physical health and help us re-prioritize our goals and values, according to a new analysis of recent scientific studies. Even non-conscious thinking about death – say walking by a cemetery – could prompt positive changes and promote helping others.

Past research suggests that thinking about death is destructive and dangerous, fueling everything from prejudice and greed to violence. Such studies related to terror management theory (TMT), which posits that we uphold certain cultural beliefs to manage our feelings of mortality, have rarely explored the potential benefits of death awareness.

"This tendency for TMT research to primarily deal with negative attitudes and harmful behaviors has become so deeply entrenched in our field that some have recently suggested that death awareness is simply a bleak force of social destruction," says Kenneth Vail of the University of Missouri, lead author of the new study in the online edition of Personality and Social Psychology Review this month. "There has been very little integrative understanding of how subtle, day-to-day, death awareness might be capable of motivating attitudes and behaviors that can minimize harm to oneself and others, and can promote well-being."

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[eyewashere]

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[Universal Credit]

Thinking about mortality once in a while is one thing, letting it become a morbid fascination is another.

There is a dance between over and under doing these kind of things. Whilst culture as a whole is too 'eternal youth' focused there are also too many people who are almost 'shinto' in tending the graves of close relatives these days. Time wasted and better spent on the living? Death being the great equaliser will not care whether a grave is tended or not.

[Can't be bothered]

I think about death all the time, in particular my mother's death, I watched her die right in front of me, and thanks to me it was my fault. I talked her into having a heart bypass, that went wrong, the day before she died she phoned me saying she was scared she was going to die, I told her not to be silly,as I said the op went wrong and I had to make the decision of turning off her life support and watched her die. I have, and never will forgive myself for that, so I have to say, and I don't mean any disrespect, what you say is utter bull, I hope you can see why I say this, after my mother's death I got lots of texts from my family calling me a murderer, I wasn't even allowed to go to my own mother's funeral.

[Universal Credit]

My own mother died a few months ago. Tragedy but I know my mother would not want me to spend too long in grief. She lived to live. I'm sure that isn't unique. Time and chance happen to us all. Ultimately we will all lose this game, and the dance ends. Life isn't meant to be lived in a graveyard though.

[eyewashere]

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[Can't be bothered]

My condolences to you SRex