Changing Our Perspectives on Death

Handling death is part of Clayton, OH cremation services, but most of us run from anything having to do with death as hard and as fast as we can. We try to stop the aging process when we’re young. When we age anyway, we try to squeeze out as many years as is medically, technologically, and scientifically possible. We don’t talk about death. We don’t plan for death. We have, although we intellectually know better, the crazy notion that death only happens to other people.

Because of our avoidance of anything about death, we don’t know death. We fear death. And we’re uncomfortable around death.

But the reality is that we’re all going to die, so whether we know death, fear death, or are uncomfortable with death doesn’t matter because it’s still going to happen. Because of this perspective, we don’t really live our best or fullest lives.

If we lived with the conscious thinking that we could only be breath away from death – and we could accept that as a natural and normal part of the biological cycle of every living thing and that’s okay – we would not put off until tomorrow the things we should do or want to do today.

Quantity of life is really not the goal that we should be pursuing, because most of the time quantity comes at the expense of quality. What does it matter if we live to be 100 and we’re confined to a bed because we’ve lost our mobility, we live in absolute silence because we’ve lost our hearing, we can’t read anything because we’ve lost our eyesight, and we’re all alone because all our friends and family, including our children, have already died?

This is where the philosophy of death positivity comes in to reframe our perspective on death. It means accepting death as part of life and tearing down the barriers that keep us from talking about it and planning for it in advance, while living the lives we have left richly and fully – making them quality lives, instead of quantity lives.

Death positivity is not the same as thinking that death is a good thing. It doesn’t mean that we start actively pursuing death. It also doesn’t mean that the sorrow, sadness, and grieving that surrounds death are minimalized or ignored. Instead, death positivity encourages us to acknowledge and express the emotions of loss and grief that we feel when someone we love dies.

Among the benefits that we’ve already discussed about death positivity is embedded the security and well-being of the loved ones we will leave behind when we die. When we plan for death, we take care of things like life insurance, living wills, powers of attorney for medical, legal, and financial affairs, and wills that make sure what we have is distributed to whom and the way we want them to be distributed after we’re gone.

Additionally, death positivity can help us to talk to our loved ones about their end-of-life wishes for care and after death, so that we can ensure that they get what they want and need when their time comes to die.

Death positivity is a state of mind that will help us get the proper perspective on death, so that we’re not only prepared for tomorrow, but we can squeeze out every bit of enjoyment from today.

For information about Clayton, OH cremation services, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 1849 Salem Ave., Dayton, OH 45406, or you can call us today at (937) 278-4287.