Relating to Death, and Living a Better Life
Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson
Shownotes Transcript
The median life expectancy for a man living in the United States is roughly 80 years. That works out to 960 months, 4,160 weeks, or about 29,000 days. Rick is sneaking up on 70 years old, which means, on average, he's got about 10 years – or 520 weeks – left.
Putting the time we have left into simple numbers can be both a bit daunting and remarkably clarifying. When you're in the middle of them, the days can blur together. But the truth is that our time’s limited, and how we use it is up to us. On today’s episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson talk about what's helped them come to terms with mortality, the reality of our limited time, and how we can use that knowledge to refine our focus and live a more fulfilling life.
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Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
4:00: How Rick’s relationship with death has changed over time
11:05: Appreciating life as a comfort in accepting death
14:00: Dukkah, Tanha, and contentment
16:30: Distinguishing the ocean (reality) from the wave (ego)
21:20: Acceptance, contraction, and expansion
25:35: Finite experiences, and undelivered communications
31:30: “Life is for the living”
33:10: Giving, contribution, contentment, and fulfillment
40:05: What to do about regret?
47:40: Serenity in old age
49:00: Practical ways to hold awareness of death
55:05: Recap
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