You're alive today. But you're mortal. Someday you'll stop existing. So what now?

William started our session with an unsettling thought: "I'm 55, and I've lived more than half of my life. I've accomplished beyond what most can. I'm ready to go."

We each face our mortality or death in different ways. Some confront. Some embrace. Some give no or little attention.

Some deny. Some become pessimistic. Some overreact.  Some struggle. Some get too anxious.

Others feel sad from time to time. Still others function optimally by finding peace with the fact.

Indeed, facing your mortality can be imprisoning or freeing.

When the manifestation is psychological dread or death anxiety, then it can imprison.

In his book, "Staring at Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death," psychotherapist Dr. Irvin Yalom says that the good news is you can use the knowledge of your mortality to your benefit.

He puts it this way, "Though the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us."

Though I don't totally agree with Dr. Yalom regarding what he perceives to be the deepest meaning of death and after, I affirm his "saving" point.

We are here now alive. But we are mortal. We won't exist in the physical some day. That's simply inevitable reality.

The "saving" point is the liberation that comes when you accept and embrace this reality. And, the life beyond earthly existence to prepare for.

That's where you find lightness, forgiveness, peace, and eternity.

It frees you. Not letting go of the temporal makes you desperate or sick.