Every day before I go out into the world to live my life, I spend a few minutes looking at my death mood board.
My gaze might fall on a quote by Marcus Aurelius: “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly.” Or it might settle on a photograph of artist Frida Kahlo dancing a macabre tango with a skeleton.
Together, these images and words help me explore my relationship with mortality—and remind me to live the life I have with greater intention.
Making a death mood board can help you uncover your fears, values, hopes, and wishes for the end of life—before a crisis pressures you to make difficult decisions.
In this post, I’ll show you how to create your own death mood board, what the process may reveal, and how this creative practice can help you approach mortality with more curiosity and less fear.
What Is a Death Mood Board?
A death mood board is a collage of images, colors, words, and quotations that gives visual form to your feelings about mortality.
Unlike a vision board, which usually focuses on goals you hope to achieve, a mood board is less about planning an outcome and more about discovering how you want an experience to feel.
I use mood boards to explore my relationship with a difficult subject, notice what draws or unsettles me, and find inspiration during challenging seasons.
When the subject is death, the board becomes a gentle place to gather the fears, values, questions, and beauty that may be difficult to express in words alone.
How a Death Reflection Exercise Can Help
Creating a death mood board can reveal emotions and experiences that are easy to avoid in everyday life: fear, unresolved grief, memories of past losses, and even beliefs inherited from family or culture.
Exploring these responses before a medical crisis gives you space to decide what matters to you rather than letting urgency—or someone else’s values—shape your choices.
As certain images and words begin to resonate, you may also gain a clearer sense of what you want at the end of life: who you hope will be nearby, what kind of setting feels comforting, or what dignity and care mean to you.
Those insights can become a compassionate starting point for conversations with loved ones and for practical end-of-life planning, including advance care planning and completing an advance directive.
When I made my own death mood board, I discovered themes I hadn’t expected.
Despite the devastating losses I’ve experienced, the images I was drawn to showed me that I see death as part of the natural world rather than something entirely separate from life.
Recognizing that connection has eased some of my death anxiety and helped me feel close to loved ones who have died through the signs and cycles I notice in nature.
I also discovered that, for me, humor belongs in my relationship with mortality. That may sound surprising, but laughter can offer relief when grief and fear feel especially heavy.
My board did not give me simple answers; it gave me a more honest picture of the inner resources I can draw on when life becomes difficult and made this death-positive practice feel deeply personal.
How to Make a Death Mood Board of Your Own
The process of making a death mood board can be as meaningful as the finished piece, and there is no single right way to do it.
You can draw your own images, cut pictures and words from magazines, print materials you find online, or create a digital board using a platform such as Pinterest.
I like to begin with a standing trifold display board—the kind often used for school science fairs—and collect quotations and images that catch my attention.
Once I have enough material, I arrange and rearrange the pieces until the collage feels engaging and true to me.
Give yourself time, follow your curiosity, and make the experience inviting: light a candle, brew some tea, play music, or pour a glass of wine.
The goal is not to create a perfect work of art, but to notice what you choose and what those choices may be telling you.
How to Use Your Death Mood Board in a Death Positive Practice
When my death mood board was new, I spent intentional time with it each day.
I sat on my meditation cushion in front of the board, let my gaze rest on each image or quotation, and noticed what arose in me without trying to analyze it. I breathed and allowed the words, colors, and symbols to settle into my awareness.
After a week or two, I moved the board to a place where I would naturally see it as I went about my day, and I paused with it for a few minutes each morning. Over time, this simple practice helps its themes become part of how I understand myself.
Ultimately, my death mood board is not only about preparing for death; it is a daily reminder to live with attention, gratitude, and intention.
A death mood board will not answer every question about dying, and it does not need to.
Its value lies in making space for the images, feelings, and values that are already within you.
By returning to your board over time, you may find it easier to speak about your wishes, begin thoughtful end-of-life planning, and meet mortality with greater openness.
Most importantly, this creative death reflection exercise can remind you that reflecting on death is also a way of choosing how you want to live today.
If this exercise inspires you to think more intentionally about your final wishes, I invite you to reach out through my contact form for a complimentary 30-minute consultation.
We can gently explore what matters most to you, with no pressure and no need to have everything figured out.
Imagine making your own death mood board right now: What single image, word, or quotation would you place at its center?