Contemplation of Mortality (Memento Mori)
Rehearse your own death nightly to force a clear reappraisal of what actually matters
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 78%
The Stoics used contemplation of death as their most powerful technique for values reappraisal. Seneca would tell himself each night as he went to bed that he might not wake in the morning, then ask whether he could look back on his life with satisfaction and, if not, what he would change. Marcus Aurelius pushed it further, telling himself to imagine he was already dead and had merely been granted an extension, a stretch of borrowed time. The mechanism is that vividly rehearsing mortality strips away the smoke and mirrors of social convention and exposes which of your activities are meaningful versus which merely kill time. Robertson frames it as the 'nuclear option' of Stoicism: extremely potent, but explicitly not appropriate for everyone.
Origin
Robertson draws the practice from Seneca's nightly rehearsal and Marcus Aurelius's 'you are already dead, living on extension' meditations, presenting it as the strongest Stoic tool for waking people out of an unexamined life.
Core principles
- 01Facing death is liberating, not morbid
- 02A brush with mortality reveals which activities were just killing time
- 03You are, in effect, already living on borrowed time
- 04The unexamined life is not worth living
How to run it
- 1
Rehearse the night as your last
As you go to bed, imagine, as Seneca did, that you will not wake up in the morning. Sit with the idea rather than brushing it off.
Watch out Do not attempt this if you are depressed or suicidal; it can deepen the crisis.
- 2
Audit your satisfaction
Ask whether you can look back on your life so far and rest easy, satisfied with how it has been.
Pro tip Answer honestly rather than reassuringly.
- 3
Name the change
If the answer is no, identify specifically what you would do differently with the time you have.
- 4
Reframe today as borrowed time
Adopt Marcus Aurelius's stance: imagine you are already dead and have been generously granted an extension, so every day is penalty time.
Pro tip Treating the day as a bonus reframes trivial worries instantly.
- 5
Redirect the day
Spend the reclaimed time on what you would not regret on your deathbed, rather than avoidance activities that merely fill the hours.
Pro tip Nobody engraves 'I wish I'd spent more time on Facebook' on a tombstone.
In the wild
Robertson asked a talk audience to raise a hand if they had ever had a brush with death through a health scare or dangerous situation; about two-thirds did. Discussing it, many reported feeling strangely calm rather than terrified, and afterwards found themselves reappraising their values, asking whether the things they filled their days with were meaningful or just ways of killing time.
→ A confronted sense of mortality repeatedly pushed people to re-examine and reorder what they valued.
Common mistakes
Applying it to someone in crisis
For a person with clinical depression or suicidal thoughts, contemplating death is the wrong tool and can cause real harm. Reserve it for the reasonably resilient.
Treating it as morbid brooding
The point is a forward-looking reappraisal of values, not passive rumination on death, which just reinforces avoidance.
Is it for you?
Best for
Reasonably resilient people who feel directionless and want a jolt to clarify what they value.
Not ideal for
Anyone suffering from clinical depression or suicidal ideation, for whom this technique can be harmful.
From the transcript
“seneca used to say to himself every night when he went to bed i'm not going to wake up in the morning”
“marcus really says imagine that you're already dead but you've got an extension”
“no one has ever had on a tombstone engraved i wish i'd spent more time on facebook”
From the episode
Stoicism: How To Think Like A Roman Emperor - Donald Robertson - #274
Donald Robertson