Is there a specific moment when one realizes that s/he is going to die? I guess there is; in fact there are many such moments, because once the inevitability of death has been recognized, a whole system denial springs into action in one’s brain trying to undo the realization, trying to forget once again what it has unintentionally remembered.

Sometimes the brain succeeds; only to stumble upon the reality again at some future time. I have seen people survive cancer, terrible car wrecks, even falls from multiple stories; what I have never seen people survive is life. Life is the most fatal of all diseases. Once you are born, you are doomed to die sooner or later. So I have stopped my brain from trying to forger death. I have decided to always remember that I am going to die. And this decision has freed up my brain; liberated it. And with this newfound freedom, I try to make sure that I don’t spend a single moment without realizing that I am alive.