The online sensation these days is "death meditation," where people cocoon themselves like mummies and visualize their lifeless bodies. The idea is to confront and accept the reality of their eventual demise.
It sounds incredibly gloomy and eerie, definitely not what one would call "calming."
From The Daily Mail:
Death meditation, a mindfulness meditation practice centered around thoughts of a person's death, has taken social media by storm, with 2.5 million views on TikTok and 3,000 posts on Instagram.
Additionally, classes aimed at making practitioners feel at peace about dying have popped up in major cities like New York and Los Angeles.
While the practice seems new, it has ancient roots.
There are several types of death meditation, and some are based on particular Buddhist traditions. One of these is maranasati, or mindfulness of death, which reminds practitioners they could die at any moment and should be prepared.
Maranasati teaches that death is not a scary concept, rather it is a natural process, and thinking about it can lead to a more positive outlook.
Another death meditation practice involves visualizing the body's inevitable decay to let go of attachments to the material world.
In some more intense sessions, participants wrap themselves in white sheets to make themselves look and feel like mummies or they will write their own eulogies to read out loud to a group.
I mean, I think this sounds horrible, but if it helps some folks out there struggle with their afterlife, then more power to them.
