Studies show that imagining your own demise can even change your biases and politics. (Read more: “Why contemplating death changes how you think”).

研究表明想象自己的死亡有助于改变偏见和政治。

There’s a concept in psychology called Terror Management Theorythat suggests that when humans are subconsciously presented with the concept of their own deaths, they become less tolerant and more aggressive. One of the classic studies in this theory involves judges presented with a court case in which they have to set a bond for the defendant. Judges who were not subconsciously reminded of their own death before the fake trial set an average bond of $50. Those who were reminded of their mortality set an average bond of $455.

心理学上有一种理论叫做恐怖管理理论，这个理论认为当人们意识到自己面临死亡时，他们的行为会变得不宽容，更具攻击性。这一理论中的一个典型案例研究涉及一名法官当面临在一场官司中为被告设置保释金的限额的情况。在虚拟庭审中，当法官并没有被告知死亡相关信息时他们普遍设置额度为50美元的保释金，当被告知死亡相关信息时法官判定的保释金额平均在455美元。

All of this raises an intriguing possibility: if in the future, medicine allows us to know the date of our death with greater clarity (see sidebar: “The day you will die”), then it could change us in more ways than we realise.

所有这一切都提出了一个有趣的可能性：如果在未来，人类可以通过医学的进步了解到准确的死亡日期，那么这个信息会在更多的我们意识不到的方面影响着我们的生活。

Still, it’s one thing to think about death in the abstract, distant sense, and another to be faced with the possibility of your own happening suddenly today. Hagberg Fisher likens it to when a close friend or family member dies. You might know they are going to die soon, you might try to prepare for it, but when the news hits, there’s a kind of grief that you can’t really get ready for. You can’t understand what it’s like until it happens.

然而，将死亡看作是遥远的抽象的事情与真切面临今天就会死亡的可能性是完全不同的。哈格伯格•费舍尔把这种事情类比于一个亲密的朋友或家庭成员的死亡。你可能会知道他们会很快死去，你也许会努力准备，但你永远无法准备好的是当事件发生时所带来的真正的悲伤。有些事情你无法真正理解，直到它发生。

For Hagberg Fisher, the possibility of death hung over her for nearly a decade. No-one could tell her what the prognosis was or what was making her sick. Often they wouldn’t even say the words “cancer” or “tumour.” When she was re-diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White, the risk of sudden death consumed her. She found herself frozen in yoga poses, afraid to move, lest she bring upon her own death.

对于哈格伯格•费舍尔来说，死亡的可能性已经在她身边挥之不去将近十年了。很多时候没有人能告诉她确切的是“癌症”或者“肿瘤”。而当她再次被诊断出患有沃尔夫-帕金森-怀特氏症候群时，有可能面临猝死的恐惧席卷了她，在做瑜伽时她几乎不敢扭动身体，恐惧使她无法行动，唯恐会由此导致死亡。

There are plenty of famous quotes about living like it’s your last day. Steve Jobs once said: “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” These quotes might seem cheesy, but Hagberg Fisher says that living in death’s shadow for so long truly has changed her outlook on life. She is adamant about living in the moment. She rarely makes plans beyond a few weeks out.

很多著名的至理名言指导人们珍惜当下。史蒂夫•乔布斯曾经说过：“我每天早上都在问镜子里的自己：”如果今天是我生命中的最后一天，我想做我今天要做的事吗？”当答案是“不”，一连几天都是这样，那么我知道我需要做出改变了。”这些名言听起来似乎很俗气，但哈格伯格•费舍尔说，长期在死亡的阴影下生活的确改变了她的人生观。她坚持活在当下，很少做出几个星期以外的计划。

And when she’s laughing, she says she makes sure to take a note of it. “Every time I find myself hysterically laughing I call attention to it, I am experiencing laughter and joy and this is beautiful and I am going to soak it up because I know so well its opposite. The lows and lower and the highs are higher, and the highs are really beautiful.”

当她每次大笑的时候她说自己一定会记下这个时刻。“每一次我发现自己歇斯底里的大笑时，我一定会特别的注意到这个现象，我症状经历欢笑和快乐这些美丽的瞬间，我要充分的享受这样的时刻，因为我深知不能够欢笑的痛苦。碰见低点的时候，就会更悲伤，但是碰见高兴的时候，就要更高兴，因为这些高兴的时候才是真正美丽的瞬间。”