Winding Down as End of Life Approaches

I was thinking about life and living the other day——- what? doesn’t everybody?  Anyway, I envisioned life as a line. Birth, living, dying, death is how life unfolds.

We are born with labor to get into this world. We learn how to eat, to sleep, and to socialize as part of being alive. Then we turn around and begin the process of dying by eating less, sleeping more, and withdrawing socially.

When we enter this world we learn to eat food, gradually going from water, milk, soft foods, then anything our bodies can handle.

With sleep, at first we sleep most of the time (parents are saying hopefully) and then gradually we spend more time awake.

At first we are dependent, then we gradually take on more and more responsibility.

Food, sleep, and socialization are three important aspects to living life.

When life has run its course (however many years it is) our body begins to "wind down" much like it “wound up” in the beginning.

If an accident or an illness does not interrupt the life cycle, there will come a point where it begins preparing for death just like it prepared for living and experiencing when it was born.

Gradually through the remaining years, without even realizing it, the body begins preparing for death. Food seems less important. Meat isn’t as good as it used to be, quantities aren’t as large, gradually, ever so gradually, soft foods, soups, ice cream become more interesting, until eventually we just aren’t eating a balanced, enough to sustain life, diet.

As with the baby sleeping less, in old age our sleep needs seem to increase. “I’m just tired all the time," "I can’t sleep at night but easily sleep in the day," (how many babies have their day and nights reversed?). Naps became important and eventually we are sleeping more than we are being active.

Our social skills and wants tend to change. We have less need for people interactions, we start to go inward with our thoughts.

AND THEN labor begins, labor to leave this world, labor to push out of this body we have spent a lifetime experiencing in.

There are articles and books written about these similarities.  Dr. Susan Boron’s Bookends is a new one I am familiar with. Most people don’t think about birthing, living, and dying let alone its similarities. I’m offering you something to think about.

Something More...  about Winding Down as End of Life Approaches 

Watching a special person decline from disease or old age can be scary. I have created a (multi award winning) film, New Rules For End of Life Care, DVD Kit. This educational kit teaches people how to care for their loved one at the end of their life.  It will educate gently and reduce fear.

Whether the patient is at home, in a nursing home or hospital, this kit will give the family valuable information they need to understand the dying process.  

 


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8 comments

Ann S. Epstein

As someone who has always enjoyed working (broadly defined), it strikes me that the dying process you describe is the last “job” we each do. It’s a job we are not trained for, although much of the work is instinctual. What you, your readers, and others working in end-of-life care are doing is providing society with the skills to make our last job as rewarding as our other life’s work.
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BK Books replied:
Thank you Anne for your insight. I can also see life as a job. Looking for analogies, how about life is school. We are here to learn particular lessons (the challenge is to figure out what those lessons are). Blessings! Barbara

Teri

Thank you for continuing to share your wealth of knowledge. It is comforting to know there are sources available to help folks(myself included) looking for answers.
Your publications are easy to read, understandable and helpful when dealing with grief. In addition, they are a great reference.

God Bless
Teri

Teri

Thank you for continuing to share your wealth of knowledge. It is comforting to know there are sources available to help folks(myself included) looking for answers.
Your publications are easy to read, understandable and helpful when dealing with grief. In addition, they are a great reference.

God Bless
Teri
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BK Books replied:
Hi Teri, thank you. Blessings! Barbara

Mia Miller

I echo all the above folks comments. You just keep teaching how unified this whole experience from birth to death really is and how the changes can be taken as a natural part of a persons life however painful seeing it happen may be. I know it goes against what we want but to allow ourselves to see it as natural helps a lot.
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BK Books replied:
Hi Mia, I really like your statement that dying is a " natural part of a person’s life however painful seeing it happen may be". We often let our own fears and concerns get in the way of letting the natural process unfold. Blessings! Barbara

Lolita Silicani

Dear Barbara,

You continue to amaze me with your wealth of knowledge on life in general, from beginning to end. I find your information fascinating!!

Thank you again for another wonderful posting.

Sincerely,
Lolita :)
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BK Books replied:
Lolita, thank you for your kind words. Blessings! Barbara

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