Alua Arthur: How Considering Your Death Will Improve Your Life

What Drives You with Kevin Miller

The point of this podcast is to better fuel your drive so you achieve more fulfillment. I’ve met few people who want to talk about death. We avoid it like…death. It’s black and dark and to be feared. At least in our culture. But seven months ago my Dad got a surprise cancer diagnosis, and he died six weeks later. I was fortunate to walk with him daily until his last breath. I went from zero exposure to death, to full exposure. And it’s altered my life. My brother Jared Angaza was there as well, and he participated intimately as a death doula, walking with my Dad intimately in his personal care and spiritual ponderings. We’d never heard the term “death doula” before. Well, divinely, I was contacted by an agency about having Alua Arthur on this podcast. Alua is the most visible death doula working in America today. She trains and educates other death doulas to walk with people in the end days of their lives, from basic planning to nurturing their souls and the lives of their loved ones. Alua has spent literally thousands of hours with people as they contemplate their mortality when regrets, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally revealed aloud. It is for this insight I wanted to talk with her. Her TED Talk, “Why thinking about death helps you live a better life” has 1.5 million views. She has been featured on CBS’s The Doctors and I’ve now seen her in Disney’s “Limitless” docu-series with Chris Hemsworth. Alua’s journey to death work started when her family fled a murderous coup d'etat in Ghana. She went on to become a lawyer, but after walking with a close friend through his death, she devoted herself to walking with others and educating us on what we can gain in our lives today, from considering our death in the future, instead of avoiding it. I’ll be referencing Alua’s new book, Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life By Getting Real About The End, which is her raw, no holds barred, honest, and frequently hilarious memoir that shares her powerful message with people all around the world. You can also find out more at Goingwithgrace.com. I sat down to talk with Alua about how her insights with death can help us lead more authentically driven and rewarding lives, right now.

Got a comment or question about an episode? Want to ask a question about your drive? Email me. I don’t want to just talk to you here, I want to talk with you. [e-mail].

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