'Remember, You Will Die'
Join me for 7 Days of Joyful Stoic Death Writing, 5-11 May
In this letter, I invite you to join me for 7-days of death writing from May 5 to 11. You're welcome to devote as little as 5 minutes or as much as an hour to contemplation and writing—whatever feels right for your schedule and personal practice. We'll create a supportive community by gathering and sharing in the comments section. Reply to this email to let me know if you are joining in!
Dear You —
Each year in May, Scotland hosts events designed to help us better understand and come to terms with death. This year, Demystifying Death Week is happening from May 5-11, while in England and Wales it’s Death Matters Awareness Week.
To mark the occasion, I’m offering 7 Days of Joyful Stoic Death Writing—a gentle, mini-version of the 28-day programme I’ve been hosting since 2019.
The contemplation and acceptance of mortality—especially our own—can be deeply therapeutic. It can increase our psychological flexibility, deepen our well-being, and bring a kind of freedom.
And yet, so often, we avoid thinking about death, or simply drift into forgetting that it will happen.
I live right next to a cemetery—and still, I forget I’m going to die.
Ernest Becker, in The Denial of Death (1973), proposed something quite profound—that our fear of death fundamentally drives all human activity.
“The idea of death,” he writes, “the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else: it is a mainspring of human activity, activity designed to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.”
I find myself reflecting on this when I mindlessly open Netflix on my computer (or engage in similar comforting distractions).
I invite you to consider: “How would your life be different if you truly kept in mind the fact that you could die at any point, as could those around you?”1
We'll explore this question deeply during our 7 days together, but I'd love to hear your initial, honest response. Perhaps you already contemplate mortality regularly and have noticed how this awareness has transformed your life? If so, I'd be genuinely interested to learn about your experience.
How ‘7 Days of Joyful Stoic Death Writing’ will work
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Each day from Monday 5th to Sunday 11th May, I will send a daily email email with a death meditation and guided journaling and contemplation prompts (inspired by ancient writing exercises and Stoic philosophers Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius).
The email will be scheduled for 6 am UK time. Check your time zone at World Time Buddy.
There will be timed options. So, you can choose from a 5 minute exercise or spend an hour. You can save these in your email inbox and do them once a week or at a time that suits you.
Comments will be open to all, and I encourage you to share writing, thoughts, snapshots from your journals.
About Joyful Stoic Death Writing
I have previously hosted this as a 28-day intensive writing programme. I started hosting a version of this on Facebook back in 2019, with shorter explorations in 2018. I continued to develop the programme and then in 2021 it became the subject of an academic study. If you are interested, you can read two academic studies of the programme, here2 and here3.
As I consider what the next iteration might become, I'd love to invite you to join me in this mini-version—a chance for us to explore together as I reconnect with and reimagine the programme.
I truly believe this is one of the most important practices we can do.
As philosopher Pierre Hadot beautifully expressed: ‘The thought of our imminent death transforms our way of acting in a radical way, by forcing us to become aware of the infinite value of each instant.’
So, dear you, let’s gather together to contemplate and write about this most natural—yet sometimes terrifying—event with tenderness and courage.
We are all going to experience it.
Let’s help each other demystify it, accept it, and perhaps even be inspired by it.
What participants have said about ‘Joyful Death Writing’
“Thank you deeply for this framework and supported invitation to explore the unseen (thoughts, feelings, energy, history, future and more). I'm loving the journey!” —
I was uplifted every day: first by your email, then by the daily practice, copywork and contemplation, and throughout the day by reading the Stoic friends' responses. —
Wow! What a journey! — Jerry Everard
I have participated in the 28 Days of Joyful Death Writing practice two years in a row now and I love it. The way it makes me pause and reconsider things in my day-to-day life -- Where could I be kinder? More patient? How could I show up here? Be present? -- is all in credit to Kathryn's beautiful guidance and prompts. I find the longer we get into the 28 days, the more naturally these practices come, as does my acceptance of death being a part of life so that I can start living! —
See you on Monday 5th May.
Menzies, R. E., & Whittle, L. F. (2022). ‘Stoicism and death acceptance: Integrating Stoic philosophy in cognitive behaviour therapy for death anxiety’. Discover Psychology, 2(1), 11. Available here.
Love the idea. Form believer of : embrace life so you can embrace death. I’m not afraid of dying but more afraid of not living.
Not sure what time this starts on May 5, but I’ll be in a plane, landing in Paris around 10 am CET so may be late 🤷♀️
Thanks for doing this again, I will be happy to join!