It means that in life the only thing that matters is how we live it, nothing else. Now some of you may be thinking, Idika, why would you remind yourself you will die every single day? Isn’t that a bit depressing? To which my answer is, not in the least bit.įor me, the idea that we are all going to die one day and nothing is permanent is liberating. Okay, time for my favourite principle, “remember you will die”. Negative energy will only attract more negative energy so translate every negative situation into a positive one where you can learn and grow from it. Remember to learn from it but avoid complaining. It is not easy at first, but with practice, it gets easier. Instead of complaining, I will just listen to a podcast, or an audiobook or just even music that I haven’t listened to in a while.” Recognize that the traffic jam is not within your control, but your reaction to it is.Ĭomplaining about it won't make it go any faster, in fact, it may even seem as if it is even longer. I could have left the house earlier but now there is no use in complaining about it. I am stuck in a traffic jam and I am late now. Now x,y,z are all going to go wrong because of this.” into “Okay. Translate the, “Ugh I hate being stuck in a traffic jam. Remember how privileged you are to be able to ride in a car on a road without potholes, probably with your music turned on. Stuck in a traffic jam? Love it! Don’t complain about it. This is a pretty neat concept.Ī lot of times people are way too busy complaining about their situations that they forget to realize that they should be making the best out of it. Just missed your bus? Amor Fati! Lost your job? Amor Fati! Love your circumstances and they will love you back. Failed a test? Amor Fati is there to save you. Whenever something bad happens to you remind yourself “Amor Fati”. Or as another Stoic, Epictetus, urged his students: “Keep death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems terrible- by doing so, you’ll never have a base thought nor will you have excessive desire.” Use those reminders and meditate on them daily-let them be the building blocks of living your life to the fullest and not wasting a second.To love one’s fate is what this phrase means. After all, it is Seneca who urged us to tell ourselves “You may not wake up tomorrow,” when going to bed and “You may not sleep again,” when waking up as reminders of our mortality. It is not surprising that one of Seneca’s biographies is titled Dying Every Day.
The Stoic finds this thought invigorating and humbling. It doesn’t matter who you are or how many things you have left to be done, a car can hit you in an intersection and drive your teeth back into your skull. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. To treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain.
It’s a tool that generations have used to create real perspective and urgency. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning. Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. The original painting is part of a genre referred to as Vanitas, a form of 17th century artwork featuring symbols of mortality which encourage reflection on the meaning and fleetingness of life. The French painter Philippe de Champaigne expressed a similar sentiment in his painting Still Life with a Skull, which showed the three essentials of existence - the tulip (life), the skull (death), and the hourglass (time). Let that determine what you do and say and think.” That was a personal reminder to continue living a life of virtue NOW, and not wait. In his Meditations-essentially his own private journal- Marcus Aurelius wrote that “You could leave life right now. Memento Mori - (Latin: remember you will die)–is the ancient practice of reflection on our mortality that goes back to Socrates, who said that the proper practice of philosophy is “about nothing else but dying and being dead.”
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