This article was updated on 17 August 2022 and discusses WeCroak app.
Here’s a thing: the Wecroak app.
The founders believe daily reminders of death help relieve death anxiety – and that this in turn is at the heart of many mental health problems today.
Co-creator Hansa Bergwall says death contemplation during meditation practice is where the idea sprang from.
“It’s very natural to want to forget that you’re going to die,” he says. But he warns people against forgetting that clear, unavoidable fact.
“When we forget we’re going to die we get caught up in things that aren’t true because we are going to die. We spend most of our lives separated from what makes us happy because we’re hunting it, we’re seeking it. Or we’re constantly living in the past and resentment and wrongs because we don’t remember that our time is precious and we have this moment.”
“The WeCroak app is inspired by a Bhutanese folk saying: to be a happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily.” says the website.
When notifications arrive randomly during the day users need to swipe to see the quote that focusses on the fact that death comes to all of us. The aim is for us to then carry on with our day with the knowledge that we are going to die.
To our culture that might seem like too much.
That said, there is something powerful in the idea expressed on the website: “We encourage you to take one moment for contemplation, conscious breathing or meditation. We believe that a regular practice of contemplating mortality helps us accept what we must, let go of things that don’t matter and honour the things that do.”
Thanks for the tip-off about this app, Susie A.
To find out more about Wecroak, go to:
Listen to me discussing the inevitably of death with Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck on the ABC.