Memento Mori
The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A transformative guide to embrace your own mortality and live a more fulfilling life
Talking about death has been deemed morbid, taboo, or even pathological. But in order to fully embrace life, scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders all agree—contemplating death is the key to living a life with meaning.
This life-changing book will give you a 12 week program to befriend death in your own way, creating your own personal, daily meditation on what it means to be mortal. Through personal anecdotes, historical examples, meditations, exercises, journal prompts, and reflections, you will learn to both come to terms with what death means and to live alongside it without fear. In doing so, you will see your own life in a new light and discover what makes life worth living. After all, there’s no better motivation to seize the day than a regular reminder that your days are numbered.
Whether you're struggling with anxiety, grieving a loved one, or seeking a greater sense of purpose, Memento Mori is an invaluable guide to living a life of greater meaning and joy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By confronting their mortality, readers can better appreciate their limited time on Earth, contends this enlightening outing from Ebenstein (Anatomica), founder of Morbid Anatomy, an organization that explores "death, life, and the in-between." Drawing on religious ritual, psychology, and an array of cultural traditions, she frames death as part of a cycle of rebirth reflected in everything from a butterfly's metamorphosis to Christian notions of the "dark night of the soul" preceding spiritual renewal. She also discusses the value of mourning loved ones via wakes and shivas. Such communal rituals anchor death as a meaningful part of being human, but their waning importance in a secular Western culture—where death is increasingly viewed as a "failure of intervention"—has driven increased anxiety about the end, according to Ebenstein. For the most part, she manages to allay those anxieties with perspective, compassion, and accessible guidance, though reader mileage may vary on such unorthodox exercises as making "something out of the hair of someone you love, dead or alive." The result is a revealing and wise glimpse into what might lie beyond.
