Personal Development Newsletter, May 2008 - Carpe Diem Special Issue
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Tim LeBon
May 7, 2008, 3:06:47 PM5/7/08
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It's a beautiful spring day today. Go seize it!
Often that very simple advice doesn't have much effect, and we need to be shocked out of our complacency. Thinking about death and your own mortality can be the best spur to help you make the most out of life.
In this newsletter you can read about the Life After Death exhibition currently showing in London, Pictures of people shortly before and after death are placed alongsides their thoughts about their imminent death. You can also learn out about positive psychology's take on death. Far from ignoring it, the science of happiness and human strengths takes a strong interest in death. Dying professor Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has become something of an internet phenomenon. Of course a concern with death, and death anxiety is also associated with existentialist philosophers, and to round things off you can read about their take on death and death anxiety too.
You can view the complete articles by clicking on the "Read more" links, where you can also get into the debate by adding comments.
Carpe Diem!
Tim
Often that very simple advice doesn't have much effect, and we need to be shocked out of our complacency. Thinking about death and your own mortality can be the best spur to help you make the most out of life.
In this newsletter you can read about the Life After Death exhibition currently showing in London, Pictures of people shortly before and after death are placed alongsides their thoughts about their imminent death. You can also learn out about positive psychology's take on death. Far from ignoring it, the science of happiness and human strengths takes a strong interest in death. Dying professor Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has become something of an internet phenomenon. Of course a concern with death, and death anxiety is also associated with existentialist philosophers, and to round things off you can read about their take on death and death anxiety too.
You can view the complete articles by clicking on the "Read more" links, where you can also get into the debate by adding comments.
Carpe Diem!
Tim
Life before Death Exhibition 
Recently I taught a ten week Personal Development Through Philosophy course, and, though we talked about many interesting things - wisdom, happiness, meaning, love, work - the topic that grabbed students attention most this time was death. I don't think that this was because the group was particularly negative or morbid - it wasn't - but because it's the one aspect of the human condition that is both inescapable and most frequently denied. Many live as if they believe they are guaranteed their full three-score and ten years - as if important things can wait.The truth is that even if we do not suffer an early death, time is our most important and non-renewable commodity.....
It's one thing to nod sagely at the above thoughts, another to let it affect one's life. If you are anywhere near Euston Station in the next couple of weeks, I recommend half an hour spent at the Life Before Death exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/blog/2008/05/life-before-death-exhibition.html
Death Anxiety and Existential Psychotherapy
A sure sign that we find a topic uncomfortable is that we joke about it rather than discuss it directly . Hence the large number of Woody Allen jokes about death - like these.
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?
It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/DeathAnxiety.html
Positive Psychology and Death
Anyone who thinks that Positive Psychology is just about smiley faces and being over-optimistic, read no further, unless you want to be disillusioned. ....
Number one post on death in the positive psychology world concerns the free on-line lectures given by dying and wise 47-year-old professor Randy Pausch, especially his "Last Lecture", which you can view in long or short versions. He's just published a book called The Last Lecture.
....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/blog/2008/05/positive-psychology-and-death.html
Recently I taught a ten week Personal Development Through Philosophy course, and, though we talked about many interesting things - wisdom, happiness, meaning, love, work - the topic that grabbed students attention most this time was death. I don't think that this was because the group was particularly negative or morbid - it wasn't - but because it's the one aspect of the human condition that is both inescapable and most frequently denied. Many live as if they believe they are guaranteed their full three-score and ten years - as if important things can wait.The truth is that even if we do not suffer an early death, time is our most important and non-renewable commodity.....
It's one thing to nod sagely at the above thoughts, another to let it affect one's life. If you are anywhere near Euston Station in the next couple of weeks, I recommend half an hour spent at the Life Before Death exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/blog/2008/05/life-before-death-exhibition.html
Death Anxiety and Existential Psychotherapy
A sure sign that we find a topic uncomfortable is that we joke about it rather than discuss it directly . Hence the large number of Woody Allen jokes about death - like these.
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?
It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/DeathAnxiety.html
Positive Psychology and Death
Anyone who thinks that Positive Psychology is just about smiley faces and being over-optimistic, read no further, unless you want to be disillusioned. ....
Number one post on death in the positive psychology world concerns the free on-line lectures given by dying and wise 47-year-old professor Randy Pausch, especially his "Last Lecture", which you can view in long or short versions. He's just published a book called The Last Lecture.
....
Read more at http://www.timlebon.com/blog/2008/05/positive-psychology-and-death.html
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