Finally, the fact that I am an active part of the same definition means that I cannot remain aloof or objective, as I try to convey a process that I started when I was diagnosed with cancer. It is, in fact, a very personal path.

Some people may have accepted Death as a traveling companion after a journey of personal growth or introspection, meditation, etc. In my case I also needed a cancer diagnosis. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter the form, the most important thing is to come to accept it as soon as possible and not run away from it.

So, in the beginning, dying consciously meant nothing more than doing it with the highest level of consciousness possible, living the trance intensely as the personal, unique and non-transferable experience that it is.

From my point of view, this would be the ideal culmination of the whole process: to discover and accept Death within our lives and die with our eyes open and feeling how the body gradually turns off until it dissolves and disappears , catching air before the final jump. To die alive, without anything or anyone being able to distract me from any physical or metaphysical sensation, from any thought or - even - from the pain that I am able to endure. I would like to say goodbye to everything and everyone and remain alone, observing the changes, and live my death with presence.

But as I read and listened to others, turning the idea of dying consciously around in my head, I realized that the experience of death was not limited to the strictly temporal moment of physical death. The concept is much broader than that.

In other words, what was supposed to be a personal, non-transferable experience became a matter that was beyond me as an individual. And in a way, I was responsible for that.

My death became something that didn't just affect me. Since, beyond my passing, my death would continue to impact the lives of the people who, in one way or another, are part of my environment.

So, from the moment I discovered that I was a mortal being and assumed and integrated it as something natural that didn't just happen to the rest of them, I unknowingly started the path of conscious death. I began mourning my death by mentally charting the steps that had led me here:

• The first step -I've already mentioned it-: it's receiving the news: "Death is a friend who always accompanies me, I'm mortal." And assume it without fear. This step can happen at any time in life, for no apparent reason.

• The second step: to mourn one's own death. Start saying goodbye to the material things that surround you and own you more than you own them. Later on, we will also have to do it with the people who surround us and love us, saying what we keep quiet about and maybe keeping quiet about what doesn't add up - if not now, when?-.

• This step should allow us to change the way we look at things and people, everything takes on a different meaning and becomes relativized; self-pity no longer has a place and fades away.

• The third step: once you've freed yourself from self-pity and accepted that death is an inevitable fact, you can immediately relieve those around you of your distress because they don't have to worry about how you feel. And, on the other hand, make decisions that only you can make - like, for example, writing a living will-. Calm comes.

Now yes, with this positive, sincere and realistic attitude we can turn our process into a mirror and a learning experience for others. We can become the people who calmly lead all those around us to our deaths when, in fact, we will do nothing but accompany them to their own deaths.

We must aspire to be the ones who, at the last moment - on our deathbed - take the hand of the one who accompanies us, and be able to convey with a smile - perhaps invisible - a "don't be afraid, everything will be fine".

Getting this far is a great act of generosity towards the other, it means wanting to assume a certain responsibility for the well-being of the people around us if they allow us and at the same time respecting their space, their fear and their silence.

Conscious death is a difficult and lonely road, without a timetable or deadlines. It is an act of love and respect, an example towards the acceptance of Death and a way of dignifying life. It's the path I've chosen and I don't even know if I'll be able to complete it successfully.

Finally, paraphrasing Ana Carrasco-Conde, he would add that: “[...] we will die, yes. But what if we contribute something to others with the time we have left? And to the question: what is the use of thinking about death?, to be able to calmly answer that thinking about death helps us to think about life and to know how we want to live it and what meaning we want to give it".

In short, with a positive and sincere attitude, we can show the kind face of knowing that we are mortal. Death as a process of maturation. This perhaps is ultimately the meaning of a conscious death, and also of a conscious life. Why, aren't they the same thing?"