I would like to thank you for the role that you have played in bringing this workshop on Conscious Dying.
With the facts around her sister's death seared into her brain, Hayes forgot how to take care of herself. She says she felt like she was walking on her hands and eating with her feet. Nothing felt normal. It was while hiking in Lynn Headwaters with a good friend that Hayes saw a faint light at the end of the tunnel. The friend dropped the term "death doula" and Hayes was intrigued. She went home and immediately googled it.
"It was so clear to me that this is what I'm supposed to be doing," says Hayes. Except the timing for Hayes becoming a certified death doula was a little off, she admits. You're not supposed to take the program when you're in the throes of grief, but Hayes pushed through to the other side. She was a student learning about grief when she had already aced the painful exam.
Hayes took a three-month, End of Life Doula program overseen by the Conscious Dying Institute out of Colorado.
A beautiful story we wanted to share about helping others with grief by Tree Franklyn posted on on Uplift Wednesday February 21st, 2018..
Kathleen Taylor is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over 20 years of experience in hospice, palliative care, and advance care planning. She currently operates a coaching and consulting practice primarily serving the healthcare, social service and nonprofit sectors. In her career, Kathleen has fostered communication within families, in conference rooms, and in communities. Her intention is to bring her skills and insight regarding clarity and authenticity to every interaction. Kathleen is based in Tampa Bay, FL.
Those who are called to the healing path of End of Life Doula know that they will see life and death in all its fullness in their service to those at end of life. End of Life Doulas offer their presence in witnessing all of life's gifts and challenges, the suffering and the healing, the learning and the surrender.
Cultivating the skill of being present is a foundational practice in our End of Life Doula program. And it's the worlds most versitile skill. Offering one's precence is an incredible gift, in all circumstances. It's not just for end of life care. We resonated with this article from the New York Times, The Art of Presence. It's a beautiful reminder that "most people need presence" and "non-verbal expressions of love are as healing as eloquence".
There is no possible way to express enough gratitude for your generous gesture towards me in the program! The situation with the father of my children had been away of my conscious awareness for a long time--the loss of LOVE and the loss of my maternity in the way that most women experience it in a day to day basis.
I do not even know how it happened that I raised my hand to work with you. My infinite gratitude to you to have receive my pain and open my compassionate heart towards the man I have LOVE THE MOST DURING ALL MY LIFE. For whom this love has never vanish even if immense suffering has come upon me and I my children. May the suffering of my children and myself bare the fruit of true compassion towards Alfredo.
I would like to extend my gratitude to all the participants for their generous time and attention given to me during the program. Let them know that I am committed to be a channel to lessen the suffering of others as a token of gratitude to all and every one present with me during this last two days!
Blessed be your father that perceived the wisdom teacher in his woman child! May I honor all your teachers and guides in the work you do!
As she sits in stillness, she takes note of her inner space - her space full of past wounds, rushing thoughts, and emotional roller coasters; her space full of ideas, hopes, and dreams. The space that holds her physical being.
So she let's go of all of it ... inviting a moment of pure surrender ... a surrender that draws her beyond her suffering, beyond her attachments, beyond her perceptions and beliefs and dreams.
As she dwells silently, curiously in that place of pure Love, she recharges her heart, her soul. She finds peace, comfort and strength.
With the Beauty that permeates, it would be easy for her to stay, to get completely lost in the place of intoxicating Love ... but she becomes aware of that which waits for her return; that which pulls, tugging tirelessly at her attention.
So once again, and with intention, she surrenders.
She surrenders back into her human-ness to hold her space full of past wounds, rushing thoughts, and emotional roller coasters; her space full of ideas, hopes, and dreams.
She surrenders because she realizes that her close proximity to woundedness, pain, and emotion does not separate her from Love; it actually accentuates Loves presence. It allows her the opportunity to embrace what it means to be human - to experience dis-ease, suffering, fear, longing - all of which open her heart to tenderness, compassion, and empathy for herself and others.
She surrenders because she knows that it is all one and the same. By fully embracing the condition of being human, she surrenders to Life; and her surrender to Life is, ultimately, her surrender to Love.
Thank you all for keeping the energy strong. This emails have been so helpful to me as I plopped back down to earth and struggle with the balance of keeping the weekend alive and taking care of business.
Listening to my heart - I shared the link to the Sophia's bath and have been coming back to that clip throughout my day. This was well received and a few "curious inquiries" about the topic. Yeah! Blessings always in all ways to each of you. My world is sweeter because of each one of you.
Thank you again for the weekend. With an awareness for each of our individual needs you gracefully guided us toward new pathways.
Thank you for that poem Tarron. Thank you for this work you are teaching.
Here's a poem I wrote a while back that I realized could have been written about our weekend together.
Thank you for releasing so many healing tears.
Let light into the dark frozen places that resist.
So sweet to read through all the emails, the threads that continue to weave us together. I wanted to share the lyrics to the song I sang on the last day. You can probably find the melody on YouTube if you would like to learn it, but if not, just call me!
Much love, and I thank and bow to each of you for your generous and couragous hearts as you embark on this journey into the land of Lady Death.
Our wonderful Phase 1 graduates of the Sacred Passage Doula Certification program warmed our hearts with poems and beautiful expressions of their experience. This post and page is a thank you!
Thank you all for such a generous, beautiful experience!
(My) biggest area of professional growth was understanding how important ceremony and ritual is for me as an individual and a doula. Also – all the discussion about what our doulaship is going to look like and what actual steps we will take to help our vision come to fruition was enormously helpful.
I learned wholeheartedly the mission of a Sacred Passage Guide; I learned that part – a huge part of my role will be outreach; I learned that my gifts took intentions and sacred awareness of what makes me the doula I want to become; I loved all the teachings around vigil, the doula panel and after death care, and grief gates.
Because I am drawn to death, the sacredness of it and my own sacred selfishness urges me to ... serve as a source of education, companionship and ceremonialist – a sacred passage guide for those who are dying and their families.
I loved every minute of this certification; I've appreciated so much the teachers, especially Greg, Marilyn – who have been tremendous in sharing their experiences, wisdom and knowledge. Thank you Tarron for bringing this language and this sacred right to us, and giving us the opportunity to share it.
Tarrron, you are a wonderful teacher and facilitator. Greg, I learned so much from you, your wisdom and your being. Tarron, same. A wonderful experience and education. Becky, thank you for answering all of my questions beautifully. All the faculty is so great and wonderful.