Memento Mori

Live the present fully, don’t worry about past mistakes or wonder about the future. This is advice that you have already listened at.

It is advice that you should follow, and I say this because even I find it difficult to not dwell on the past, and this holds me back and makes me overthink too much. It even affects my mental health and wellbeing.

And why should you follow this advice? The answer is simple, and it is because the present is the only thing you have. If you repent all day about the past or worry about what the future can bring you, you’ll never live a meaningful life.

This is why death should be a reminder to you, as the Latin dictum “Memento Mori” states, it means remember you will die, so why aren’t you living the present moment?

There are many ways in which you can live in the present and enjoy your journey in life, such as meditation and mindfulness. But there is also a powerful mindset to adopt, and it is that death can come at any time. So ask yourself, how would you live if these were your last moments in earth?

How would you approach your day? Which actions would you to make your life memorable and fulfilling? How would you speak to your parents? How would your attitude be?

Think about it and try to live in the present moment, before it is too late. Because as Marcus Aurelius the Roman emperor wrote in Meditations:

Don’t panic before the picture of your entire life. Don’t dwell on all the troubles you’ve faced or have yet to face, but instead ask yourself as each trouble comes: What is so unbearable or unmanageable in this? Your reply will embarrass you. Then remind yourself that it’s not the future or the past that bears down on you, but only the present, always the present, which becomes an even smaller thing when isolated in this way and when the mind that cannot bear up under so slender an object is chastened.

Motive Spire