This article is about an  end-of-life treatment, called Dignity Therapy, that was created by a man named Harvey Chochinov.

Dignity Therapy offers patients various ways to reflect on their lives, whether is through a "Patients Narrative, Re-writing a Life or an Urgency to Change"

Chochinov found that what people fowler uncomfortable with the idea that who they were would completely cease to exist after their death.... "If the idea of having something that will outlast even you matters for patients that are near the end of life, then we need to do something that will create something that will last beyond ... the patient," he says.

Each of these processes allow the patient to be remembered the way they want to be remembered.

​How do you want to be remembered?  
​Start being proactive and take the actions that are important to you now, so that you do not have to wait to be on your deathbed to rewrite your life.

What is an End-of-Life Doula?  It can be many things, but I love what Deanna Cochran says in this article...
"Above all, it’s a healing role. End-of-life companions can help relax a traumatic situation by allowing those involved to feel loved, and heard.”

I learned first hand from Deanna how EOL companions can help in various ways.  Each EOL Doula brings their individual gifts to the situation, all with the willingness to be of services to the dying, and their families.

​Read more below.

Kathleen Taylor gives a TEDx Talk about how she found that most people, towards the end of their lives, revise their bucket list to:
becoming courageous
changing their minds
apologize, forgive, etc...
finding joy in the smallest moments.

In this TEDx talk, Taylor urges one not to wait until they are at the end of their lives to find the true selves.

Start working now on your revised bucket list.

I've talked about Living Death Aware, which is different from what Angela Morrow, RN, writes about The Phenomena Of Nearing Death Awareness.

Angela shares that the dying person is "aware that death is near".
     "This is a special knowledge that a dying person has that death is near. Often times this awareness is overlooked    
      by the patient's loved ones and health care providers and may even be mistaken for delirium or terminal
      restlessness".

Learning to speak openly, before death and dying occurs, can help to support, and to comfort, the dying persons process as serenely as possible.  

Knowledge is the key to gaining understanding what dying may look like, and what is needed to achieve a peaceful death.

Are you ready to learn more about being Death Aware?