My oncology patients "Get it"

My oncology patients "get it."  Like so many that think we struggle with mortality our behaviors say we don't.  We are angry, reckless, have bad habits in diet, culture and health.  We live like there is no tomorrow.  Maybe there is a tomorrow and maybe there is not a tomorrow. Or maybe there are thousands of lifetimes of tomorrow. But today, my oncology patients know without a doubt they are going to die.  They have been given the gift of knowlingly facing their mortality they will not have to wait to the last minute or die in their sleep never addressing this fact; we all die.
The ancient Samurai culture taught warriors to not fear death.  This was their first lesson in training. If you are not afraid of death what is there that you cannot attempt to accomplish?  Mind training or mind deconstruction should be our primary objective otherwise we will enter the realm of the old German saying, "Too soon old, too late smart."
Being human has taught us that denial is a positive and powerful tool to avoid fear.  Fear does not go away.  Somatically it enters our bodies where wreaks havoc.  Psychologically fear, stress and denial make our thought processes stumble.  Our emotions become less pure and our fuses grow short, we worry about the insignificant while the significant fade away into dissolution.
We would serve ourselves well at not treating the symptom and instead root out the source of the malady.  We all like to take a pill or have surgery instead of taking a lifetime to prevent the causes of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and mental illness. We choose not to have time to care for ourselves and those around us.  Instead we pay for others to do these tasks. Drug companies, healthcare industrial complexes and insurance corporations are happy to take our hard earned money and take away our responsibility. The fallacy is they will take our money but we are always responsible.Responsibility can never be given away.
We must lance the abscess of our illness and clean out the garbage that resides within us.  If we take this lifetime to purify our being we will have generations to come of greater, stronger, purer souls who will have a clearer sight at our evolutionary spiritual pathways.
Where do we start?  How do we face our mortality?  The fact of the matter is that the question itself is a paradox as well as the answer.  We face mortality by being the best we can be as a human today.  We don't improve ourselves tomorrow we face life today.  Like Eckhart Tolle we live in the now. Like Brene' Brown we face vulnerability and accept "I am enough."  Like Shawn Achor we say our 3 gratitudes everyday, meditate, exercise to prepare the way.  If we supplant happiness with fear, is there then a fear of death?  If we live to our best right this moment will it matter what happens if that next timeless moment is death?
How we all choose to answer that question will represent where we are and where we can go.



http://www.brenebrown.com/books/

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html