You are dying. You will one day be worm food. You’re a gonner. You will certainly shuffle off your mortal coil. Maggots will feast on your eyes and beetles will dance in your chest. Trees will suck up your cells and spew them out into the air. You’re gonna snuff it. Life ends, shit happens. You are dying, that’s a fact and it’s good news.
Don’t get me wrong, I love living and having it’s juice run down my chin, what I object to and why I have written this is that I don’t see the benefit in denying death. I believe not facing up to the end-game to be very harmful as paradoxically, it is awareness of our temporary status that makes life rich. We live in a culture that hides de
ath behind closed doors and polite ceremonies, denies the reality that could enliven our days and breathes down our necks each night. This is not the case in all cultures, the Samurai would meditate on 1000 ways to die before breakfast to conquer fear, in Ethiopia where I lived briefly death was generously available in the streets and in the Middle East mourning is a more passionate public affair. I could go on…
Nowhere is this death (and therefore life) denial more apparent than in the corporate world. This extends beyond not mourning actual deaths in companies to denying the causes of ill health in a pretence of invincibility (I have done stress workshops after this facade has been sadly smashed). Even denying the loss of people leaving or being laid
-off in the recession is a loss and requires mourning to process that rarely happens.
So to live fully my suggestion is this – embrace death, dying and our transitory vulnerability. We are precious and doomed – and that is beautiful.
Here’s a guest post from Toby Buckle ………….. I spent four days on my own over the previous weekend looking after my two girls Olivia age one and Georgia aged two. It really opened my eyes to what my partner has to do most days. Although I do spend a lot of time helping with [...]
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When I was 17 I split up with my first love, turned my back on the mysticism and embarked with masochistic zeal on a quest to find certainty in the domains of science and ethics (the philosophy of goodness/ value). I was a voracious reader with several hours of travel time each day with nothing [...]
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A lot of stress management techniques come from the USA, and while they have there uses many have an exuberantly optimistic flavour that like cheap instant coffee leaves a bad taste in stiff-lipped British mouths. In the UK we have plenty of experience dealing with stress, from The Blitz, to losing at all the sports [...]
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Integration Training work with communication training, time management and leadership training and the issue of managing meetings often comes up. Here are a few tips to make meetings more effective. You will need to adapt them to the circumstances that you find yourself in naturally: Let people know the purpose of the meeting ahead of [...]
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Working with Conflict – Conflict Resolution Tips Working skilfully with conflict requires application of emotional intelligence, embodied intelligence, communication skills and leadership. If this sounds daunting, here are a few general “rules of thumb” for managing conflict skilfully. Conflict is often highly beneficial and can strengthen individuals, relationships and the task at hand when handled [...]
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