How Thinking About Death Can Improve Your Life | Alua Arthur

12 snips

Jul 3, 2023

Alua Arthur, a former attorney turned death doula and founder of Going With Grace, shares her profound insights on death and its unexpected benefits. She discusses how contemplating mortality can reduce stress and enhance life quality. Alua emphasizes the importance of open conversations about dying, healing, and the value of not leaving things unsaid. She challenges the notion of hope at life's end and explores the concept of reincarnation, revealing how embracing death can lead to deeper connections and a richer appreciation of life.

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ANECDOTE

Unexpected Beginning

Alua Arthur's path to becoming a death doula began unexpectedly.
A conversation with a woman dying of cancer on a bus sparked her career change.

INSIGHT

Death Doula's Role

A death doula provides non-medical, holistic support to dying individuals and their families.
This includes emotional, spiritual, and practical assistance during the end-of-life process.

INSIGHT

Life's Preciousness

Working with death is a constant reminder of life's preciousness, making Alua feel more alive.
Being present for death encourages her to live fully in the present moment.

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There seems to be one clear bug in the human operating system — most of us do not like talking about death. Yet when we do talk about it, it can genuinely upgrade the quality of our lives.

Our guest today is Alua Arthur, a former attorney who is now what’s called a death doula, which is someone who helps guide people through the end of their lives. Through this work, she has learned some extraordinary stuff about how to live life right now.

Alua is also the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization. She is working on her debut memoir, which will be coming out next year called, Briefly Perfectly Human.

This conversation took place at the 2023 TED Conference in Vancouver, immediately after Alua delivered her triumphant talk, which is out now. Special thanks to the TED Audio Collective. You can listen to Alua's talk and other TED talks on the TED Talks Daily podcast.

In this episode we talk about:

How death can be a powerful motivator
How consistently being aware that you’re going to die can be a “stress reliever”
The utility of imagining your ideal death
Her view on reincarnation
How the concept of “healing” can sometimes be used as a weapon against ourselves
The importance of not leaving things unsaid
How “hope” at the end of life can sometimes be unhelpful
What surprises her about death
How her work helped her out of her depression
The five steps that you should take when confronting your own death
The harm that can sometimes result from too much medical intervention toward the end of life
The often fraught relationship that vulnerable and marginalized people can have with the medical community
The benefits of thinking about what version of yourself you want to meet on your deathbed
The death meditation that she uses when working with people
What to say and do when you are with somebody who is grieving
And a practice she calls, “The dying things exercise”

For tickets to TPH's live event in Boston on September 7:

https://thewilbur.com/armory/artist/dan-harris/

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/Alua-Arthur-619