Spirituality, Mental Health
Here’s How I Tackle Mortality with Optimism.
The power of optimism to cope with the mortality paradox “In the end!”.
This article is a thought process based on my personal and humble perspective on mortality and how I use it as an advantage to maintain an optimistic and joyful life despite the scary reality looming behind and in front of us.
In the end, when we reach to our final breath on this earth, our lives will turn to a dream.
Some of us will experience it as a pleasant dream, some of us full of regrets, and some of us even as a nightmare. We all may fall somewhere on the scale of this spectrum.
The reality is we are all mortals. Inevitably, we will all experience our final moments on this planet one day.
The distractions from the noise of the frenetic modern world mask reality from our consciousness and make us forget it.
Ironically, some of us act like we will be living forever.
The prime example of this ironic case relates to those elderly people who stringently attempt to save money for the rainy days trading off their health and happiness, even though they have substantial wealth.
From a scientific perspective, we know that our genes are programmed to decay and ultimately die. The proof is in our shortening telomeres (specific DNA–protein structures).
Even though this norm sounds depressive, some stoic thinkers believe that thinking of our mortality paradoxically induces joy and passion.
I touched on this existentialist concern in my attached article.
This existentialist view debilitated humanity since we possess our cognitive brain. Many philosophers, scientists, and technologists included the concern in their agenda. Negligible yet conflicting insights are emerging.
However, some of us find relief in some creative ways to deal with this existentialist dilemma.
For example, reputable stoic philosophers were adamant about thinking about our mortality regularly and in a conscious way. They believed that thinking about our mortality could help us live in the moment with appreciation and gratitude.
Let’s take Marcus Aurelius as an example, who said:
“Think not disdainfully of death but look on it with favor. For even death is one of the things that Nature wills.”
Modern psychology confirms that living with appreciation and gratitude can replace or prevents negative thoughts from triggering and leading to strong emotions such as anxiety, fear, jealousy, and anger.
My personal approach, with influence from stoic thought leaders, is to focus on the things we can control and not be concerned about the things we cannot control.
We cannot control our mortality. However, we can partially control or at least influence the factors leading to joy and happiness in our lives.
The universe is full of unknowns. There appear to be more unknown unknowns than known unknowns when we look at it from a cosmological perspective. We started to understand some mechanisms, but our knowledge is negligible. It is like a drop in the ocean.
Therefore, no one knows the reasons behind the programming of our DNA for mortality. If we look at it from an optimistic perspective, we may think that our consciousness may transform into a better self.
Whilst pessimists see the mortality phenomenon as decay, as an optimist, I see it as transformation. I have no idea who is right or wrong.
But at least we know that optimists live longer than pessimists. However, these studies indicate that only 25% of our optimism is programmed by our genes. The rest is up to us and how we respond to life challenges.
We have a 75% effort in front of us to influence the life factors for joy and happiness. I want to have a pleasant dream in the end.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and long life.
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About the Author
I am a technologist, postdoctoral researcher, author of several books, editor, and digital marketing strategist with four decades of industry experience.
I write articles on Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope publications supporting 15,500+ writers on Medium. You can join my publications requesting access here. You may subscribe to my account to be notified when I post on Medium. I share my health and well-being stories in my publication, Euphoria.
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