The Gift of Dying Consciously - Women of Wisdom Foundation

Interview by Kris Steinnes on Voices of Women.

http://www.transformationtalkradio.com/meet_shows.php?id=6907

?

I?ve actually done quite a bit of work in elderly communities and I?ve always brought up the subject about death.? And most them really don?t want to think about it.? I spoke to one woman who said, ?Well, I?ll deal with it when I get there.?? I talked to my minister and he said, ?Well, I hope that I?ll be surprised!?? And so there is this ingrained inability to talk about death and I think it comes from the fact that maybe a century ago people were very much more in touch with death.? The life span was shorter, people died at home, we saw the bodies.? Midwives whose job was to birth children also came in and prepared the bodies for death and there were lots of tracks about living with dying.? Death was all around them.? With the advent of the modern medicine, people die mostly at hospitals, they don?t die at home and many times you don?t even have a chance to be with the body before the mortuary comes and picks it up.? We have become almost passive observes of death instead of involved loving people around those that are our family members or friends.

What I want people to feel is that death ? like birth, is a key rite of passage and you don?t want to just ignore it or miss it, because when one sits with a friend who is making the transition it is a transcendent moment and we don?t want to lose that. We don?t want to be onlookers outside the door waiting for it to happen.?To die consciously is to approach death having prepared yourself on a physical, emotional and spiritual level and I think that kind of preparation can go on at any time.? Not just when we are at the point of dying.

At death the chakras begin to loosen from the body and the chakras are what hold the energy body to the physical body. So as they loosen, we do something called the great death spiral, which is to help that process.? In a healthy body, that isn?t at the point of death, the chakras?s rotate clockwise during the day and bring energy into the body and then at night, they rotate counterclockwise expelling the dense or toxic energy and it?s a great system.? As we age, the chakras begin to accumulate more dense energy and more toxins, partly because of the environments we live in these days, and so to clean the chakra?s keeps you in a lighter situation so that at the point of death the spiritual part of you, the etheric part of you will leave easily and smoothly. Then the great death spiral goes through and closes those chakras and seals them, essentially anoints them so that the energy body doesn?t try to come back to the physical body because it?s no longer a useful vehicle.? It?s not that this is new information but it is something that people can do themselves.? They don?t have to wait for a person who is a priest or minister to do it for them.

When I was taking the training there were a number of oncology nurses who spoke about the fact that many of their patients and sometimes children, were left alone because their parents could not deal with the sadness.? They wanted to know how they could be a support to the people so you know your friends and your advocates come in a lot of different forms at the end life and thank heavens for nurses like that but also for friends. ?I think it?s really important to find someone whose going to be your advocate, because you won?t be able to be your advocate indefinitely so make sure there is someone there to speak for you.? There are emotional and spiritual issues to deal with also and one of the things we feel strongly about is that don?t leave any unfinished business.? When you lift off you don?t want to be dragged back here because of forgiveness that you didn?t ask for, or forgiveness you didn?t give ? have you told all the people you love, how much you love them.? Do it all, say it all.? Don?t leave anything unsaid. Don?t put it off because we never know how long we are going to be here so really dying consciously is beginning to live consciously in the present.?

I think we are going to have a very different view of death simply as a transition to a different level of consciousness.?I think we are in a period of great, new, and exciting beginnings about who we are and what our purpose is here. ?If you realize that when you die, you are taking a lot of stuff with you, I think that people will begin to live differently.

Workshop with Elsa Bowman ~ The Gift of Dying Consciously at the Women of Wisdom 2013 Conference

Most of Western culture has forgotten how to die with grace and dignity. We shuttle our dying loved ones to hospitals where extraordinary measures are taken to prolong life at all costs. The atmosphere is often filled with fear and unresolved issues. Yet death is the ultimate journey of liberation. Ideally, we want to complete unfinished business and prepare to journey home as cleanly and simply as possible. This program offers simple practices for closure, dignity and peace at the end of a person?s life.

Elsa Bowman is a certified teacher for the Dying Consciously program, a subsidiary of the Institute of Energy Medicine in Park City, Utah. She holds degrees from Pomona College and Yale University and is currently affiliated with the Center for Spiritual Living, Tacoma. A former educator and administrator, she has also trained as a shaman. Her research includes various spiritual and indigenous wisdom traditions, adult development and the arts. She has presented workshops throughout the US, and her writings have appeared in USA Today, Puget Soundings, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Source: http://womenofwisdom.org/the-gift-of-dying-consciously-interview-with-elsa-bowman/

7 layer dip recipe chris carter superbowl 2012 kickoff time what time is the super bowl 2012 nfl mvp lana del rey snl performance nick diaz