Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life

by Joanna Ebenstein

Overview

A transformative guide to embrace your own mortality and live a more fulfilling life

Talking about death has been deemed morbid, taboo, or even pathological. But in order to fully embrace life, scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders all agree—contemplating death is the key to living a life with meaning.

This life-changing book will give you a 12 week program to befriend death in your own way, creating your own personal, daily meditation on what it means to be mortal. Through personal anecdotes, historical examples, meditations, exercises, journal prompts, and reflections, you will learn to both come to terms with what death means and to live alongside it without fear. In doing so, you will see your own life in a new light and discover what makes life worth living. After all, there’s no better motivation to seize the day than a regular reminder that your days are numbered.

Whether you're struggling with anxiety, grieving a loved one, or seeking a greater sense of purpose, Memento Mori is an invaluable guide to living a life of greater meaning and joy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593713457
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272

About the Author

Joanna Ebenstein is the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy. An internationally recognized death expert, her books include Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life, Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion and The Anatomical Venus. She is also an award winning curator, photographer, and graphic designer, and teacher of the many times sold out class Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Art, History and the Imagination.

Editorial Reviews

"Joanna Ebenstein has studied, and more importantly, lived this practice of death engagement for decades. This makes her one of the people I most trust to guide us through the pain, joy, fear, and ultimate euphoria of facing our own mortality."
—Caitlin Doughty, New York Times bestselling author and founder of Order of the Good Death

"There could be no better guide than Joanna Ebenstein to the enriching and startlingly uplifting benefits of confronting our mortality. This wonderfully readable, witty, practical yet philosophically profound book has the power shift your perspective and lead you into a more intense experience of life."
– Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

"A thoughtful, erudite survey through history and across cultures for all of us who wonder about death in order to lead more meaningful lives."
—Steve Leder, New York Times bestselling author of The Beauty of What Remains and For You When I Am Gone
 
"Can contemplating and even befriending death allow us to live more fully? Joanna Ebenstein uses a multicultural and historical lens to make a compelling case for just that. A thought-provoking and fascinating guide to trading fear for curiosity in pursuit of joy and meaning in our finite time here."
—Suzy Hopkins, author of What to Do When I'm Gone

“There is no better person than Joanna Ebenstein to help someone come to terms with death and dying. Memento Mori is a crucially important read for anyone who is going to eventually die, which is all of us. This incredible book spells out the steps everyone should take to make those inevitable death experiences more manageable. Not since Elizabeth Kübler-Ross has an author done more to help readers of all ages and backgrounds plan for their final days.”
—Dr. John Troyer, Death Studies Scholar-at-Large, Centre for Death and Society (UK)
 
"For well over fifteen years, Joanna Ebenstein has been at the forefront of conversations around how we think about death and the cultural rituals that surround it. Throughout it all, her approach has always been simultaneously serious and curious: sensitive to all the difficult and complex emotions involved while still maintaining a sense of wonder and excitement. Memento Mori shows her at her absolute best: open, engaging, and full of wisdom—an excellent and thought-provoking book."
—Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

"What if regularly contemplating the thing we most fear could have incredible benefits, not just for us but for all of society? This book offers a chance to transform your life in profound, deeply courageous ways, and it also serves as a fascinating tour through the history and culture of death acceptance."
— Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses

“Joanna Ebenstein has succeeded in making death fascinating, transformative, and even friendly in this poetic and engaging book. This book made me laugh, brought me to tears, intrigued me, instructed me, and delivered on its promise to make me reflect on what mattered most—it enhanced my life. It initiates an appreciation of what is most important amid the busyness of our daily lives. Ebenstein has written the modern book of the dead, a guidebook about death, but significantly, about life and how to achieve a life well lived.”
— Diana Walsh Pasulka, Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, and author of American Cosmic: Religion, UFOs, and Technology

From the Publisher