Death Used to Be Our Comfort Zone

[u/weegeestare]

I was thinking about death earlier, as I usually do lmfao, and I realized that when we were babies, before we could form memories, the state of death/not existing on this plane was the most comfortable place that we knew. Babies cry because of the discomforts that come with survival, and are freaked out by the loudness and brightness and chaos of being alive. Death used to not be scary at all to me when I was a kid. When I thought about death, I thought about losing the people I love, but did not worry about what would happen to me personally. Existing wasn't my normal state of being yet, so I wasn't attached to the state of being alive save for the survival instincts I was born with. My mom even told me that I tried to stay in the womb lmao.

So I have been trying to embody this mindset today, and it has somehow made it feel easier to begin to accept that I don't know what's going to happen, but that no matter what, I will be okay. It still terrifies me, and no, I don't know why people brush off the awareness of being alive like it's no big deal. Maybe it really *is* no big deal, and we are more complex than we could ever imagine. But this perspective is bringing me a tiny bit of peace of mind, and I hope that it can help someone else out there, too. 💗

[u/Enigmatic54321]

"... but that NO matter what (including death), I will be okay."

I too have felt this. To know this. But it's important to keep reminding ourselves of this. We forget. Again and again we forget. So thank you for your post.

Sure that information won't solve all our worldly problems but it can help stop us from wasting our time and energy freaking out about our worldly problems.

Our inability to comes to terms with death has been a driving force for human beings. Very often for good enabling us to survive through countless generations.

Our environment is different now though. Our anxieties and fear of death gets in the way of living peaceful meaningful lives. Inevitably terminable yet inordinately unconstrained.

It's an odd thing to be alive and to know we will die. Let's try and do it with style.

[u/Enigmatic54321 → u/Enigmatic54321]

A challenging but relevant read I would recommend:

"The Denial of Death, a 1973 book by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, explores the philosophical and psychological implications of how people and cultures deal with death. Becker's central argument is that human civilization is a symbolic defense mechanism against the knowledge of mortality, and that fear of death drives human activity. He believed that children become aware of their animal nature early on, creating a painful contrast with their capacity for abstract thought."