Putting things in perspective - Read this if you a afraid of death and illness

[ledzepp94]

I thought this might help those that worry about health and dying constantly. This has helped me tremendously throughout the years and when my mind drifts I always calm down by steering myself into this way of thinking. Anyway, this might not be for some but I tend to think of things on a macro level and scientifically.

Basically what I do is I try to put things into perspective. How many people have lived on this earth throughout history that are now dead? Trillions? All of these people had a wide variety of death experiences, some peaceful, some extremely painful. I think about the holocaust and WW2, the people that were starved and tortured. I know it may sound morbid but if you think about it it makes you realize that you AREN'T alone. Think of the people that lived in the dark ages, the disease and suffering, they had nothing what we have now.Nothing you are feeling hasn't been felt before by someone somewhere at sometime. As for me I always think I have something strange or undiscovered which makes me feel alone and on my own. The thing is that I'm not. Once you think of things on a macro level you understand that. You understand the natural progression of things. The goal is to undermine your fears and get to the root, the fear of pain and death. Once you realize that dying is a natural process that probably trillions of people have experienced, you feel comfort in knowing you aren't the first and you certainly aren't the last.

I also like to go even further and think of things on a universal level. If you can close your eyes and imagine that you are 1000 light years away staring at earth through a telescope. How insignificant does it look? How calm and uneventful? Peaceful? Take those thoughts and lodge them into your worry and anxiety. You will realize that on the scale of time and space, we are such a miniscule part individually. Our pain and anxiety will not stop the world, it will not stop the universe.

Anyway, this is the stuff that helps me and I thought I would share it. It's good to have perspective when you are bogged down by worry and anxiety. I think some of the causes are because we lose our perspective as we start dwelling and building upon our fears and worries. If we can hang on to the perspective we can use it as a rope to pull us up and out of our miserable holes. Some people prefer to use religion in place of what I have described above, and that works just as well. But for the agnostic amongst us I find this really helps.

[Kelley]

Thankyou for your insight. It certainly had me reading and I realise it's so true. It can be hard for some of us to let go of ourselves to realise this fact.

Kel

[rock chick]

I do hope it helps some people but it's not for me, no offense.
My mother died last year after years long fight with lung cancer and I suppose it's still too painful to think about others suffering and deaths.

However, while I'm not religious and consider myself agnostic I have spiritual beliefs, so I do believe in some sort of afterlife and spirits, although at times I find myself doubting it. I believe my mother isn't totally gone, nor is anyone when they die and neither will I be, it's at least a little comforting but I'm really trying not to dwell on death as it is.