Fear Not Mortality

In early March 2020, Italy went into lockdown to try and contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The rest of Europe, at different intervals went into some form of lockdown. For me the idea of lockdown, being an introvert seemed great to start with, I mean more time to chill, do the things you want to do, meditation, yoga and house work, the list goes on and on! But having done this now for a few months, it's interesting to see how things have changed. At the start being around my partner way more than normal seemed difficult, not getting my usual space and while I was still going to work, unlike many others, I still found myself getting a bit groggy and pissy about small stuff. Now in late June, I'm really enjoying sharing my space with my partner as we both appear to have settled into this much more slower way of life. Frequently having time away from each other to get some space without feeling guilty has helped. On the other hand, when lockdown started I found myself going with ...

The subject of death has a really bad reputation, you hear a lot about how death is morbid and how depressing the subject is, but have you ever thought that the subject of death could have some positive life changing impacts, well it really can! I was once out at a restaurants with my partners friends and the conversations were so free flowing and me being me, I couldn't help but put my foot right in it, by starting to talk about death.  As you can imagine the flow of the conversation came to a pretty swift stop. This happens a lot with me and no matter how much I explain why the subject of death is good, the majority of people just can't seem to shake off that taboo feeling. I think it has become such a knee jerk reaction, that people just don't want to let it in. On some level I understand why this is, but when you look deeper there is so much more to the subject of death. For me death is an incredible subject and holds so many great possibilities, but in this blog p...

Where do you start with a topic as profound as death? Well here goes. Most people think Buddhists are pretty morbid, as we talk about death and impermanence a lot. As a Buddhist I have to agree, at least on the fact we talk and contemplate death and impermanence a lot. But studies have shown that Buddhists like Matthieu Ricard (Said to be the happiest man in the world) are indeed incredibly joyful and happy people. So why is it that they are so joyful and happy, if they think about death and impermanence a lot? Well from my understanding, thinking about death is incredibly scary, but what happens when the fear settles is that it can shift your perspective and can make you see life in a completely different way. For me, I've always woken up and got on with my day, planning my day, week, month, year and even years ahead. But day after day I still wake up thinking that I will reach the end of my day and this although normal, really isn't entirely true. It's logical to plan, I ...