A Healthy Fear of Death
Is it good to have a “healthy fear” of death?
No.
Firstly, what most people feel isn’t fear…it’s terror. They don’t want to think about death, face it, be around it. Instead they deny it, pretend it won’t happen (yes you who doesn’t have a will when you know you need one!), don’t think it’ll ever happen to them or anyone they know under 70, and are always surprised by it.
And that’s not healthy.
And maybe it might be considered healthy if it had a positive impact. If it prompted you to draw up your will and make funeral plans, “get your house in order”. If it had you taking your health – physical, emotional, and mental – very seriously. If it reminded you that life is short….and so you lived more fully as a result, remembering that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to you, making the most of the time you have today.
But that isn’t what this terror does. Typically it has you burying your head in the sand. Thinking that talking about death is ‘negative’ or ‘morbid’ or will somehow make it happen, neglecting to do a will or make important decisions, living as if your days don’t matter and that you have all the time in the world.
It’s normal to have some fear, of course, about anything unknown or anything we don’t want to happen….but this isn’t what most people have when it comes to death. A “healthy fear” is normally a “death-denying terror”.
What IS healthy is an awareness of death. To know you will die. To understand that death happens in crazy and unexpected ways every single day to people who didn’t expect it. To be some degree of prepared and protected…as much as you can be anyway. To be taking care of your health and valuing your days – like your time is actually meaningful and actually very limited (because it is).
Kristie
xxx
