A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

by Stephen Levine

In his new book, Stephen Levine, author of the perennial best-seller Who Dies?, teaches us how to live each moment, each hour, each day mindfully--as if it were all that was left. On his deathbed, Socrates exhorted his followers to practice dying as the highest form of wisdom. Levine decided to live this way himself for a whole year, and now he shares with us how such immediacy radically changes our view of the world and forces us to examine our priorities. Most of us go to extraordinary lengths to ignore, laugh off, or deny the fact that we are going to die, but preparing for death is one of the most rational and rewarding acts of a lifetime. It is an exercise that gives us the opportunity to deal with unfinished business and enter into a new and vibrant relationship with life. Levine provides us with a year-long program of intensely practical strategies and powerful guided meditations to help with this work, so that whenever the ultimate moment does arrive for each of us, we will not feel that it has come
too soon.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Buddhism, Self Help, Death, Philosophy, Psychology

175 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 1997

About the author

Stephen Levine was an American poet, author, and spiritual teacher best known for his groundbreaking work on death, dying, and grief. A central figure in the conscious dying movement, he helped bring Theravāda Buddhist teachings to Western audiences, alongside contemporaries like Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. His work, however, was uniquely shaped by devotional practices drawn from Bhakti Yoga and his spiritual connection to Neem Karoli Baba, blending Buddhist insight with heart-centered mysticism.
With his wife Ondrea, Stephen spent over three decades offering workshops, counseling, and writings that supported the terminally ill, trauma survivors, and caregivers. Their book Who Dies? remains a foundational text in end-of-life care. Levine’s teachings also explored “everyday grief”—the quiet accumulation of life’s disappointments—and emphasized the healing power of mindfulness and compassion.
A former heroin addict who transformed his life through spiritual practice, Stephen lived his final years in quiet seclusion in New Mexico. He passed away in 2016, leaving behind a legacy of deep insight and loving presence that continues to influence seekers, caregivers, and teachers around the world.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped buying books years ago out of a need to save space and money and a desire to be more environmentally friendly. However, I would consider purchasing Levine's "A Year to Live" just so I could look at its spine on my bookshelf and remember the lessons contained therein. The strategy of "life review" and having mental conversations with those people who you have hurt or who have hurt you were really, really valuable tools that I've been using and have found very worthwhile.
However, with the good comes the bad. Most of you know that I generally don't care for self-help or spirtual books precisley because I hate sentances like the following..."it is pure awareness before consciousness begins to stir. It is the space between thoughts. It is the formlessness upon which form depends, the deathless which dies again...." Although there are very concrete valuable strategies in this book on how to more fully live and be alive by preparing for death, there is plenty of "goobedlykook" also. It is really hard work to be enlightened and I guess I just don't want to work that hard.
I really wanted to give this book a 3 1/2. I liked it more than a little but less than a lot!

[Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting topic to explore, but not sure he quite figured out how to really live like it was your last. He definitely has some insight into how to better prepare yourself for death and talks a lot about what death is and is not. Some of the chapters are redundant or purposeless. I do like many of the suggestions, such as forgiveness, life review and opening yourself up with meditations. An interesting read, but not enlightening.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The next time you have a cold, practice dying. And in the spaciousness of surrender watch the fear of death bound through with its attendant scenarios. Take each breath as though with it might be the last. Watch your life pass before your eyes. Did you notice something left undone? Do it on the next clear day. Practice living." (Quote from Chapter 2 - Practice Dying) This book gave me a great gift - an insight to who and why, ...and how and when. I started the journey thru death in an attempt to heal from the deaths of my family. I found, as is stated in this chapter, I softened and continued to soften to make room for my own life. I continue to soften, as I continue to reread this book; each time exposing a new layer from the path of life into the transformation of an after life.

[Bill on GR Sabbatical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preparing for death is one of the most profoundly healing acts of a lifetime.

I have mixed feelings about this book, which was selected for our book club by a friend who has been navigating serious health problems and treatments for several years. It seemed likely to focus my attention on preparing for an experience we all face and it did that. I found the concept of living a year with the contrived understanding that it will be your last to be surprising and useful, in and of itself. Levine intersperses other meditations and techniques that intrigued me among many and lengthy stretches that didn't connect with me at all. More problematic was the overarching, smug tone that, ultimately, only Buddhism provides a valid approach to life and death. Still, I'm glad I read it and plan to follow up with some of the exercises. Sadly, my friend entered the hospital the night before the book club discussed his selection and couldn't attend.

[Steve Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have seen a lot of violent death in my life. It always perplexed me somewhat that it was someone else who caught it. This is generally part of a kind of survivor guilt that many combat veterans experience. My early life was also dominated by serious depression and suicide was an option that was on the table for decades. Now after 7 years of fairly concentrated practice and having well passed my 60th birthday "death" has taken on a quite different timbre. I guess I am in the process of redefinition of my relationship with the "reaper".

Over the past several years I have taken a lot from Stephen Levine's work as I have progressed along the path of practice. I have always appreciated his intelligence, his insight into spiritual matters and his rigorous discipline in expressing his ideas, not to mention the poetry sometimes evident there. It was natural then as I have sidled up to "death" that I should seek out what he has to say.

I am disappointed in this work. It is the first time I could say that having read one of his books. There were moments when some of his observations or ideas struck home and parts were quite interesting but generally I found it to be uncharacteristically ill disciplined and rambling and much of it I just couldn't connect with at all. That may say more about me than the book. However, it came across to me as a book written because it sounded like a good idea but it didn't quite get the commitment necessary or perhaps he didn't actually have much to say this time.

Definitely NOt one of his better pieces of work.

[Lubinka Dimitrova · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure that many people found solace in this book, but for me it was too abstract, and most of the author's "insights" were rather meaningless to me. Its all too poetic language failed to convey a more practical way for the reader (well, at least for me) to deal with the matter at hand. He and his family supposedly decided to live a year as if it's their last, and after a year of contemplating their lives in a rather general manner (ok, seeking and giving forgiveness and preparing themselves not to be "constipated by grief"), the year was over, with them - and us - none the wiser.

Sadly most people need to really be dying in order for them to be able to finally face their mortality, and this exercise in re-living your life as if in a retrospective was not able to make me really feel the anguish of death, or find the deliverance from said anguish. Even the praised "soft belly" meditation was just plain words to me. The second star is added simply for the fact that it made me think of this subject at all.

I suppose I'll die totally unprepared. Tough shit.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a precious little book to keep on the bedside table. I intend to do just that. I have read it through from cover to cover, but it warrants much more than that. There are many thoughtful exercises and meditations to help us review life, approach fears, accept death, enter living more fully. I like Levine’s gentle and somewhat lyrical style. He doesn’t preach or teach but offers ideas and suggestions lightly and humbly. I shall look out for more books by him. Precious. Highly recommend it.

[Erika · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. Maybe the fault lies in my expectations, and maybe those expectations were unfounded. But this was really just a guide to twelve months of meditation, and I thought it would be so much more.

[Ł e X I E]

this was an interesting read, but as you can see, it took me over a year to read it. the chapters are short, but the information kind of went over my head. this wasn’t the type of book I was expecting. I felt like most of it was preparing yourself for death, rather than learning how to live... but I guess depending on your perspective, it could be a book on learning how to live your life like you were going to pass in a year. good book, but not sure if it was for me (right now).

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good points made and an overall reassuring treatise about death, but it got quite repetitious and there were several spots where not being a Buddhist meant not having the first clue what Levine was talking about.

[G Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this book one Sunday morning when volunteering at the Maui Friends of the Library bookstore. Because the store opens an hour before other stores nearby, Sunday mornings are usually slow. The copy we had was stained from water damage but readable. I began the book because I am afraid of dying -- the physical experience of it and the unknown following it.

My religious background is primarily Baptist; my spiritual background is at once more complicated and simpler because it is more accepting of what's possible (of people, of nature, of all living things). It also incorporates science and art. Still, this book challenged my imagination: both the language it uses and the ideas it proposes.

Here is an example from "The Moment of Death" chapter:

Those who know the process directly, from experiences shared with the dying, from decades of meditation, from moments of spontaneous grace, do not speak of death as a single moment before which you are alive and after which you are not. They refer instead to "a point of remembrance" in which the holding to life transforms into a letting go into death. It is, just a little way into the process, the moment when something is suddenly remembered that it seems impossible to have forgotten. We "remember" how safe death is, we recall the benefits of being from the limitations of the body, and ask ourselves somewhat incredulously, "How could I have forgotten something so important, and what was it that made me want to stay in a body?"

It makes sense but it's...just different. I had to reread many passages, but the effort was worth it for the new images of the dying process the book presents.

I don't know that I will consciously live the next year as if it's my last, though considering the date (12/30/22), now would be a good time to start. But I will revisit some sections and perhaps begin what Levine calls soft-belly practice. Again, the language was initially off-putting but eventually...just works. A soft middle is accepting, spacious, unguarded. It can hold more.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read the first 60 pages; not the book for me right now. This seems to be a book about meditation. A couple of passages that spoke to me:
p 43 ". . . one day we will realize how much of our life is a compulsive attempt to escape discomfort. We are motivated more by an aversion to the unpleasant than by a will toward truth, freedom, or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain, and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive. As Jack Kornfield says of life, as of any other lottery, 'You must be present to win!'" [* Jack Kornfield - teacher in the vipassana movement in American Theravada Buddhism.]
p46-47 "Although I have seen people who opened like exotic flowers on their deathbed seemingly without much preparation, this is not something you can count on. If you examine most of these spontaneous openings you will find that many of these people lived their lives with some degree of awareness and at least a modicum of common courtesy. I have seen even those who have long since abjured God die in grace. In fact, there is nothing more beautiful than an atheist with an open heart. Atheists don't use their dying to bargain for a better seat at the table; indeed, they may not even believe supper is being served. They are not storing up 'merit.' They just smile because their heart is ripe. They are kind for no particular reason; they just love."

[drozda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose it's no surprise to hear that a book about the end of life was not an easy read, however it was more the writing style than the subject that made this a slow go for me. I felt it to be a a positive assignment and an obviously important topic so I kept at it till the end.
Levine has worked for decades helping people to adjust their thinking and release their demons so as to approach life's close as a natural leave taking.

He says on page 85, "It takes a thousand moments of remembering for us to stay open long enough to relate wholeheartedly to our past instead of from it...As we watch again and again the story of our life unfolding, the repetition of and nonresistance to, the passing show allows us to...start to take our life less personally.

I read this book in 2007. My mother and dad had died two years earlier and Levine helped me to get over my 'edge place' fear at that time of loss and confusion.

[Michael Sasson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in a one-year exploration of death organized around this book, led by https://vinnyferraro.org/ and hosted at Spirit Rock https://www.spiritrock.org/yeartolive

The teacher is better than most North American convert teachers in being able to support weaving relationships and mutual support on the path, making sangha an embodied concept that extends far beyond the teachers relationships with each other. It is very much appreciated!

I mention it here because absent that support and structure, it would have been easy for me to read this book, get one or two insights but never commit to the practices or teachings shared by the author.

The book, while not hard to read, is dense and I would have felt the loss more than with most spiritual books. Absent the group process, I would likely have rated the book a 4 instead of a 5.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squishy and woo-woo in places, but if you can get past this and ingest the central ideas of this book, you'll find it enormously clarifying and helpful. I read this book some 15 years ago, but while rereading it this time around (when I'm considerably older) I found it to have even more value. The book imposes a paradoxical sense of calm and urgency on the reader to make the most of the present, to make the most of what you have now, and to think about what's coming in a deeply accepting way. Worth reading.

[tai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be interesting, but it was not. It's essentially a self-help book with many touchy-feely exercises, like "create a song of yourself," so unless you're already into that kind of thing, i wouldn't suggest you spend your precious last year reading this. instead, read some damn good fiction, take some drugs, get beat up or beat someone up (or both), and breathe deeply.

[Nancy Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I will return to it again and again...

[Kate]

Loved the poetic simplicity/complexity of his prose. And he offers so many ways for us to think about the life/death continuum as an opportunity to embrace the now.

[Ml Lalonde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a meditation course I’m taking by the same name. The author, one of the early American Buddhist teachers in the Theravada tradition, learned from his years of end-of-life work that the dying have a lot to teach us about how we live. I’m looking forward to exploring some of the principles and practices from the text over the course of the next 12 months.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more a discussion of mindfulness and overcoming the fear of death than of roleplaying as if you only had a year to live. There is an appendix with monthly assignments based on suggestions in the book. Be aware that the author believes in reincarnation.

[Richard Dawson]

The first chapter was great. Then it devolved into the same old information I have read a million times. It is probably worthwhile if you aren’t familiar with a lot of the concepts of Buddhism

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dearly love the concept that propels this book. Stephen Levine and his wife spent decades providing grief counseling to concentration camp survivors, war veterans, hospice patients, and many others. He brings that experience and unique perspective to "A Year to Live", in which he proposes a revolutionary act: to practice living the next year of one's life as if it were your final 365 days.

It's an exercise in gratitude, awareness, facing fear, and deciding what matters most in one's life. He guides readers through exercises and opportunities to practice, while taking us on his own journey with his wife through their "Year to Live."

The book can get a bit new-agey, even for a Dharma-lovin', yoga-practicing guy like me. But I can't find too much fault with a man who sat side-by-side with so many transitioning from life to the next stage. The experiences, along with his own Buddhist training, opened him up to a brave spiritual journey, and one that I am compelled to take myself.

This is a quick read, a brief book that invites a deep look at the lives we lead and how we might adapt our approach to treat each day and moment with the preciousness they deserve.

[Timothy Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

When life today is precarious, filled with so much uncertainty, we can feel lost. I first read Stephen Levine’s book when I was going through a stage of what I describe as my mid-life crisis. I wasn’t dying in a literal sense but was questioning my life’s path. This is now my re-read of this book. I also bought a new copy for a colleague recently retired, feeling at loose ends and wondering what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

What would you do if you had one year to live? Another part of that question might be why aren't you doing that now? The tendency in western society can be to deny the thought of dying as being part of a morbid preoccupation rather than a natural and inevitable part of life. Part of my career has included working with hospice patients - people faced with a medical diagnosis that they are palliative and have but a short time to live. Surprisingly, many have shared with me their sense of joy - not so much at the prospect of their demise but that the “sentence” has cut through any pretence to a place of authenticity.

Levine’s book should be essential reading to help guide us all to a place of vibrant living.

[Renee Legris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The basic theme is very intriguing, and of course relevant to every human being. What bothered me is that Stephen needed an editor with a firmer hand with grammar. Incomplete sentences, tangled clauses, unclear refer-backs. It got very frustrating - if I hadn't been reading it with a group I might have bailed. Eventually the key turned out to be deciding to think of him as a poet rather than a prose writer. Then all the idiosyncratic constructions were just "art"!

I'm not at all saying that he doesn't know what he's talking about - I know he has great depth of understanding of this subject. And oh my Lord sometimes there would be a downright luminous phrase. I did get tired of hearing about forgiveness, though.

If you read this book you will come across Stephen's "soft belly" meditation. I went to his web site and bought/downloaded a copy, and it quickly became one of my favorite guided meditations ever. Don't miss it!

[The Mortal Atheist Blog · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if you spent the next 12 months living as if they were your last? What would that be like? What would you prioritize, and what would you let fall away? Stephen Levine (and his wife, Ondrea) wanted to find out. So they lived a full 12 months as if 12 months were all they had left… to love each other, to spend time with friends and family, to engage in their projects and hobbies. “A Year to Live” is not a full recounting of their “last year,” it’s more a loose collection of short chapters that draw on elements of the experience (I was disappointed in this lack of storytelling). The exercise is an important one, though, and entirely relevant. You never know when your last year has started.

It might already have.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Levine doesn't mince words and given that he writes about death & dying, it can be very real.

This is, of course, my take on it.
He is Buddhist. He wrote this book from the perspective that we are so attached to the fear of dying we are always in avoidance mode. He gives examples and reasons for this. The point of the book is to let go of this attachment and embrace living.
There is a suggested year long guide (hence the name) towards the back of the book. He suggests this could be done in a group. I feel this is a very good idea. It is heavy material. Having traveling partners can make the Path easier to walk.

[Matt Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful - partly read this book and partly listened to the audiobook on audible, because Stephen Levine's voice is very moreish. He's obviously lived for so long with death and dying top of mind and his experience and openness comes through.

Lots of Buddhist, Hindu and Zen influences but also Christian, Jewish, Islam and scientific information. Aetheists won't be put off either I think.

I'll be working with this book for a year... month by month, meeting with a small group and discussing it. What if we only had a year left? How would one live differently, what would be changed..

[Robyn Fallshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to read. Most of us have a level of fear around our own death and the death of those who are important in our lives. This book takes you through many ideas and processes to better prepare for death. It is for everyone, as the sooner we prepare for our own death the better we will live our lives each day. It is in the remembering that we all die that life can take on greater meaning and purpose. So the book isn’t really about dying it is about living well.

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave a quick read to get an overview of the last year to live process. Felt inspired to experiment with this in my own life and engage with the practices described in the book. Now going back through a closer read of the material.
I don't feel it's a book to read, check off my "yeah, I read that list" and then forget about it. It needs to be revisited regularly and actively engaged with to give the material the best chance to be life-changing.
Maybe I should review in another year!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of what meditation and Buddhist philosophy have to offer the contemplation of one's inevitable death. It's a subject I have been mulling over a great deal on my own, without much guidance, and without sharing my thoughts with others. This book offers certain ideas and practices that may help.