Living as If You’re Dying

Embracing Empowered Living, Purpose, and a Thriving Mindset

I’ve been sitting with a lot lately. Between finishing my hospice training with Hospice of Santa Cruz County and losing a dear friend who battled cancer for more than a decade, the themes of life and death have been right at the front of my mind.

And with Halloween coming up, I started to wonder: what’s the real story behind All Hallows’ Eve and how is it different from Día de los Muertos?

Turns out, Halloween actually came from All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day. Originally, it wasn’t about costumes or candy at all. It was about remembering and honoring the dead.

Then you have Día de los Muertos, a tradition full of color, music, and joy. It’s not about being scared of death, but about celebrating life and remembering those who’ve passed as part of an ongoing connection.

Both are vibrant and expressive, but they hold very different energy. Halloween carries a spooky, mysterious vibe, while Día de los Muertos feels spiritual, connected, and alive.

That’s where my hospice training comes in. Hospice has its own tone too. One rooted in acceptance and compassion. It’s about being with life and death without trying to fix or control either. In many ways, hospice work teaches the essence of empowered living: showing up fully, no matter what season of life you’re in.

In hospice, we talk a lot about neutrality:
You can have grief, but grief doesn’t have to have you.
You can have fear, but fear doesn’t have to have you.
You can have hope, but even that doesn’t have to have you.

It’s all about presence or being fully with what is. That, to me, is living with purpose in its purest form.

It means noticing your own reactions—your breath, your energy—and adjusting so you can truly be there for someone else. It’s about holding space, not filling it. Sometimes that means resisting the urge to fix things, to say “I know how you feel,” or to hand someone a tissue just so you feel more comfortable.

Real compassion is allowing someone’s pain to exist without trying to take it away.

Hospice teaches you to stand right in the middle, between fear and hope, between life and death, and to simply be there. That, in itself, is a powerful practice of empowered living.

One of the most profound parts of our hospice training is an exercise that always stops people in their tracks. We’re asked to imagine getting a call from our doctor saying, “You have one day to live.” What do you do?

Then: “You have one week.”
Then: “You have one month.”
Then: “You have one year.”

Every single time, what people discover is that how they want to die is how they actually want to live: living with purpose, being present, and doing what they love with the people they love most.

It’s such a wake-up call. Why wait until you’re dying to live that way?

I’ve been thinking about that a lot since losing my friend. She was a fighter, tenacious, brave, and full of life. For ten years, she refused to give up, and because of that, she got ten more years of memories, laughter, and love. When she passed, none of us knew for weeks. I never got to say goodbye.

That was hard, especially while learning how to say goodbye in hospice training. I don’t even know if she knew she was dying. But whether we’re ready or not, endings happen. And with every ending, there’s a beginning.

There’s power in accepting that. There’s peace in exploring how we want to meet endings, both our own and others’. For me, my hospice work is about showing up for people exactly as they are, bringing my best self to every encounter, and letting go of what I can’t carry when I walk out the door.

The heart of it all is this:
Live as if you’re dying.

Because that’s when we stop waiting for “someday.”
That’s when we start living with purpose and cultivating a thriving mindset.

That’s really what my Ignite Your Power Retreat is about: tapping into your vitality, your truth, and your presence so you can live each day as if it’s your last and your most important one yet.

On the final night of my hospice recertification, we sat in a circle. In the center was an altar. One by one, each of us shared about someone we’d lost: who they were, how we knew them, what they meant to us, what they taught us, and how it felt when they were gone.

After each story, we placed a small memento on the altar in their honor. It was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had.

As I think about that night, I can’t help but connect it to Día de los Muertos. In our culture, we often close our hearts when it comes to death. Halloween tends to focus on fear, on darkness and the idea that death is something bad or scary.

But Día de los Muertos is different. It’s a celebration and a vibrant reminder that life and death are sacred parts of the same journey. It’s not about living forever. It’s about empowered living, embracing the now, honoring what was, and being grateful for what is.

That same night, a friend in my class shared about someone he knows who has 18 months left to live. He’s been through all the treatments, and now he’s traveling the world, taking photos, and living his bucket list with family and friends. He’s facing life with full awareness that it’s finite.

And it made me pause.

How are we living now?

It doesn’t mean we stop planning for the future. It means learning how to live for both the future and the present with a thriving mindset and deep, intentional awareness.

So as we move through this season, may we remember:

Death isn’t the opposite of life. It’s part of it.

Happy Halloween, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and Día de los Muertos.

P.S. If you’re interested in transforming your life to live each day to the fullest, check out my upcoming Ignite Your Power Retreat!

P.P.S. Leave a comment or contact me. I’d love to hear from you!