How to overcome fear of death: 4 tips

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Besides, I always try to sum up every story with useful recommendations (based on my own opinion) and substantiate it with my own conclusion.

Obviously, you will have an opportunity to express your own thoughts and even argue with me if you disagree with something (by the way, I love healthy criticism! J).

Now let’s go on considering this eternal question…

Once my close friend told me how much she was impressed and horrified by her grandmother’s funeral.

According to her, it became one of her worst childhood memories.

My friend’s grandmother died very suddenly, and her 12-year-old grandchild, who had never experienced a loss of a close person, encountered with a fear of death.

Moreover, its panic attacks still haunt her. My friend blames her parents for making the unprepared child meet the expression of death, and she dreams of overcoming her fear.

How to overcome fear of death, or 4 reasons why we are so scared of death

To take or not to take, that is the question…

Psychologists haven’t yet come to a mutual opinion whether parents should take their children to the funeral, even if their noble aim is to say final goodbye to a close person.

As for me, for a long time I had been thinking that a child should not be exposed to such stress.

I changed my mind when I heard a story told by my other friend, Olga.

Olga’s grandmother lives in a tiny village where all people know each other, and she happened to spend all holidays there.

As you can guess, the average age of the inhabitants was not young, and it was natural if someone died.

Nobody concealed a fact that someone, e.g. a neighbor, died, and children were not just taken to the funeral, but even allowed to participate in some rites.

All Olga’s friends knew that every old woman has a chest with many towels, kerchiefs and other useful things that were kept especially for the funeral. In such way those women wanted to prevent their children and close relatives from purchasing stuff in haste.

As Olga says, such experience didn’t lead to the appearance of some phobias. On the contrary, it helped her to develop a philosophic attitude towards death and perceive it as something inevitable.

This story made me think what actually makes us so scared of the Grim Reaper, and I came up with sudden conclusions.

This article will help you to understand what you are actually afraid of and how to overcome fear of death.

In my opinion, most people are not afraid of the death itself, they are more horrified by the phenomena that are related to it.

I determined the most widespread ones.

• The upcoming death.

  Beauties are afraid that grey hair, wrinkles and overweight will disfigure them and make them less attractive for the opposite sex.

  As for the men, they are afraid of infirmity and losing their virile strength.

  The phobia of aging is also complicated by the fact that Ukrainians and Russians don’t see the perfect example of active Europeans and Americans who travel a lot and enjoy their lives.

  They see their own grandparents with numerous illnesses, who have to operate on a shoestring.Your actions: First of all, you have to calm down.

  If you are interested in this article, you are probably a young person who wants to achieve success and live your life to the fullest.

  You won’t repeat your grandmother’s mistakes, plan your retirement in advance and spend the rest of your life travelling, acquiring new impressions and engaging yourself in a hobby.

• I will simply disappear…

  People, who are committed to God, don’t have such thoughts.

  They sincerely believe that they will be sent to Paradise for living a virtuous life.

  There is no concrete description of Paradise in the Bible, but for some reasons everybody is persuaded that it’s a very happy place, where nothing bad ever happens.

  Those, who are very doubtful and don’t believe in God, have to think how to overcome fear of death in advance, as they cannot convince themselves that the most important part of a person (his/her soul) continues existing.

  That’s why such people are afraid of disappearing forever and relegating into oblivion.

  Very often little children ask such question: “Hadn’t I existed before I was born? Really?”

  Some of the adults are also concerned with this issue.Your actions: Just believe.

  And I’m not talking only about God right now.

  If you’re an atheist, simply choose a different approach. For example, if people are born into this world, it means that somebody needs it. There is no way that a human, who is the most civilized creature, is born into this world, lives his life and then simply disappears!

  Don’t you think that it sounds crazy?

  Try to believe in God, reincarnation, other world, or even fairy-tale countries. You can invent for yourself where your soul will end up after death. Don’t disappoint me! I can’t believe that some of my readers are dried-up people without imagination!

• My life is meaningless!

  
  When we were children, we all dreamt of becoming adults. We fantasized that once we grow up, we’ll buy a huge house and a nice car, have a lot of money, family, children and other attributes of a successful person.

  And now we are adults, but don’t own anything listed above.

  We find our job uninteresting and low-paid, we haven’t travelled abroad yet, we can afford a mink fur coat only if we sell a kidney, our “car” is a bicycle, called “Ukraine”, and I’m not even mentioning our Prince or Princess Charming, who must have got lost somewhere on the way.

  And time flies by, and senility is approaching us…

  Your actions: Stop whining and complaining, start acting!

  If you are not dying at this very moment, you still have a lot of time in order to fix your life: find a better job, take care of your face and body, start making enough money, and begin searching for your beloved. You can fulfill your dreams of becoming successful!

  Is there life after death?

• Whom will I leave it all to?

  This is the reverse side of the previous point.

  People, who have achieved success in their lives, have a lot to lose.

  They live carelessly and earn much money in order to fulfill their numerous whims.

  They are often called “the winners”, as many people think that success can be easily achieved.

  In fact, such people have become successful due to many years of hard work.

  Such Fortune’s favorites love their lives and thus are horrified of the necessity to say goodbye to it.Your actions: Take a philosophic look at this problem.

  Rejuvenating apples and elixir of immortality exist only in fairy tales. Sooner or later we all will die, but hopefully, it won’t happen very soon.

  So why do you have to ruin your happy life with these useless fears?

“Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free”.
The Shawshank Redemption.

There is no answer to the question how to overcome fear of death, because everybody has his/her own reasons of phobia.

Try to determine what scares you the most and find a salvation to your problem.

As for me, I’m convinced that wasting your precious life on unreasonable fears is a crime!