🌬️ Finding Meaning in Life's Fleeting Beauty

Insights from Paul Kalanithi's 'When Breath Becomes Air'

Happy Wednesday! Today is a spotlight on the book When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. It is a profound memoir about life, death, and finding meaning.

📕 At age 36, Paul Kalanithi was nearing the end of his neurosurgery residency when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. This book chronicles his transformation from doctor to patient and his quest to answer life's biggest questions before his impending death.

SMARTEST TAKEAWAY

Embrace Life’s Fragility

➡️ Kalanithi's story reminds us that life is unpredictable and fragile. We're not guaranteed a long future.

➡️ This realization can motivate us to live more meaningfully in the present moment.

➡️ Appreciating life's impermanence makes the day-to-day journey more precious.

A FEW MORE LESSONS

1. Find Your Purpose

In the face of mortality, Kalanithi grappled with finding a sense of purpose. Reflecting on our "why" adds depth to our lives.

2. Confront Mortality

Death is an inevitable part of the human experience. Contemplating our finite existence can inspire us to live with more intention.

3. Savor Small Joys

The book celebrates life's simple pleasures: a warm beverage, a loved one's embrace, nature's beauty. Noticing these moments enriches our days.

GET STARTED TODAY

Journal Your Gratitude:

Write down 3 things you're grateful for today, no matter how small.

This shifts our focus to the positive aspects of life.

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WANT MORE?

Explore life's biggest questions through Kalanithi's poignant memoir.

Amazon.com

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

A QUOTE TO REMEMBER

❝

You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.

Paul Kalanithi

🔔 Did You Know? 

Before his illness, Paul Kalanithi had a brilliant career ahead of him as a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. He graduated from Stanford with a BS and BA, earned an MPhil from Cambridge, and graduated cum laude from Yale School of Medicine.

Paul died in March 2015 at age 37, just months after receiving his cancer diagnosis. His wife Lucy helped finish and publish his memoir after his passing.

When Breath Becomes Air was on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers list for 68 weeks after its publication in 2016. It struck a chord by eloquently exploring life's deepest questions.

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