Death is something we all will experience, but something no one wants to speak of. Lets change that.
I've received quite a lot of death education the last year+ after experiencing the death of my dad. I was 3/4 of the way through my first year of med school when he died and I felt completely lost on what was happening. Not a single person ever truly spoke to me about death, about what their thoughts were on life after death, on what it looks like, feels like, about grief.
Not knowing what to do or say to my dad lit a fire under my butt (grief can do that, I hear). My goal now, after being a death doula for over a year, is to help others so that death in their eyes and heats isn't so confusing and scary because it doesn't need to be either one. Death is sad, it is hard, it is life changing to loved ones... there is nothing that will make that go away but education can alleviate the confusing and scary part.
SO, here's why death education is important.
We all experience it. As I said earlier - we truly all will experience it and by not talking about it, we're just hurting ourselves and others. Starting the conversation is hard, I get it. Be on the lookout for a future document as well as blog post on how to better start conversations relating to death.
It can ease the grieving process/some of the grieving feelings. Now stay with me here - I'm not saying that having death education magically makes grief easier, you simply cannot make grief easier - grief is just grief. But, it will ease a LOT of the "unknown", confusing aspects that I mentioned earlier. It WILL help you be better prepared so that later on you aren't also grieving what you didn't know, what you didn't do, and what you didn't say. That's the goal, anyhow.
It can help future generations speak openly about death & dying. I don't think there will ever be a world where everyone is accepting of death, one where there isn't a single person that isn't scared to die or confused about what death is and means. I do think however that death education can make an enormous impact on the attitudes and emotions people feel about it, and that it can be really healing for many generations.
A short blog, I know! I am very much a person that says "get to the point already!"
Now want to hear from you...
How do you feel about death and dying? Have you had someone in your life die, where you are still confused about what happened, scared, grieving the what-if's? How does this post resonate with you? Let me know in the comments!
With love, peace and death education,
Loreal
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