Death and dying teach us about life and living.

My mom's birthday was this week — she died three years ago, but death came early for her in the form of Alzheimer's in her 60s. Watching her wither made me wonder why she didn't travel more, why she didn't love more, why she never had her own business which she always dreamed of.

I never got to ask her if she wanted to dance more or wished she'd tried karaoke. My mom was easily embarrassed, and her death continues to teach me to “Do it anyway.” That's my mantra when I hesitate and it has been for years. Because I watched her not do it and then fade away to something worse than regrets.

’Tis the season of Death.

It is Scorpio season after all, and here in the Northern hemisphere Autumn is winding down to Winter.

Regardless of how you feel about Death and whether or not it's triggering because someone in your life has died, have you taken time to connect Death to Life?

Death signifies the end of Life as we know it.

If you pull that concept into your body and feel all the emotions and sensations, can you also feel the deep knowing? The understanding and inevitability of Death?

From that deep knowing space, beneath the turmoil, what comes?

Death can show you priorities. If you were to die today, what would be your regrets? What would you wish you'd tried or done more of? How do you wish you'd shown up? What do you wish you'd stopped obsessing over?

Death teaches much about life. Death can be a cheerleader for life, reminding you every day to go for it because one day you won't be able to.

Death encourages you to love more and focus on what matters. Death wants you to enjoy life and to spread it around by living and sharing life. To love and laugh and challenge yourself to grow.

No matter how you live your life, Death comes. But in those moments before Death — no matter how short or long those moments may be — clarity comes about what's important. What's so fleeting. Tuning into this now can motivate you past those hesitations that keep you from living out loud, at full volume.

If Death itself is too heavy or abstract, jump ahead in your life to within a year or so of the end of your life.

What does your obituary say? What's the parting message of your life lived?

Free write to this prompt for 10 to 15 minutes. Drop into your values and how you showed up. How you lived life. The impact you've had.

As with all free writing, go with what comes. Keep the pen moving. You can also meditate on these prompts if that's more accessible.

Contemplating the end of life is another way to dream.

It's like writing a book and realizing you know how you want it to end.

It can be hard to figure out “the messy middle” until you know where you want to go. How you want the story to end or feel at the end.

Envisioning the ending dictates and shifts how you show up now.

It gives you confidence and bravery to eliminate those things that pull you away from this story. Heroic feats and miracles can happen to get characters in the right place at the right time.

I know you can't control how or when your life ends.

You can control how and when you live.

You can claim today. Claim what living feels like to you.

Death makes this clear for me. What have your interactions with Death taught you about life?

I’m here to help lift you out of the old stories and patterns so you can live life out loud. You don’t need to do it alone. Book a complimentary Spark Session and share with me the type of life you want to be living.