I participate in a Linkedin group on Grief. Here is a bit of the discussion. I prefer it to FB which is often trivial and just social. The Grief group has members who are all professionals…grief counselors, therapists, etc. and we share information and points of view. It’s quite rich and substantial. You know I avoid trivia.
Here’s a small sample of a discussion on Why People Fear Death.
Jean Bota executive director of ” Transitions in Life” and writer of peoples stories
unfortunately many of us are afraid of our own death, many more than we would like to believe… their issues are varied, afraid of the unknown, afraid of what will happen to the body after the soul has left, afraid of what will happen to loved ones when they leave, afraid, afraid…… to understand death, we must understand life, and many individuals really don’t know who they are, or what they are here to accomplish…we have become this ” economic, rational world” which does not consider our emotions, nor do they want to speak about the emotion involved not only with death, but life…. we live in a ” happy, perfect ” society, where we are suppose to ” get over it ” and move on with our lives…not so easy for many people, as there can be many more deeper issues effecting their progress forward…
So our fears are deeper and more involved than just being afraid of death….
the death cafés are a wonderful concept swiping this land and the world… individuals are sitting down in a relaxed atmosphere and being allow to speak freely about their fears and what bothers them…wonderful concept which has come out of the UK…
As with your training, the individual must have a deep inner understanding of death being a movement from one dimension to another…be able to gently eliminate the fears and guide individuals… without an agenda… good article and thank you for sharing..
Jean: I so appreciate your words, and agree that the fear of death relates directly to the fear of life…and that most people are terrified of living an authentic life, of finding out who they are in the first place, and what they were meant to do in this life. Without that knowledge and focus, life issues become blurred and frightening, and death becomes a condition to avoid at all cost. This of course leads to the avoidance of aging and so we have the youth obsession. And as you say, to the gathering of material possessions. It’s all about fear.
I believe that feeling safe here and now is the key to accepting the natural transition. In grief counseling over pet loss, people get in touch with this process. It rocks many of them to their core. But in doing the grief work, many become more whole in their own lives and begin to understand why the pet made them feel ok about who they were. And it’s not over. There is life to be lived. .