By Joan Halifax — 2019
The most profound meditation, says Joan Halifax, is contemplating the certainty of your own death.
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CLEAR ALL
It is extremely difficult for anyone, especially young people in their 20s and 30s, to be told that their treatment(s) haven’t worked. If the cancer you have continues to progress despite treatment, it may be called end-stage cancer.
The time between diagnosis and death presents an opportunity for “extraordinary growth.”
This is written for the person with advanced cancer, but it can be helpful to the people who care for, love, and support this person, too.
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When I got sick, I warned my friends: Don’t try to make me stop thinking about death.
Both providers and patients do have power to shape their experience together, especially if they take the time to have a few crucial conversations. In the spirit of palliation, here are a few things, as a physician, I wish I could share more often with patients and their caregivers.
A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out—a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.
They’re changing how we approach end-of-life care.
End-of-life doulas provide a new type of caregiving to patients and families.
Stephen and Ondrea Levine, counselors and meditation teachers, sit down with psychotherapist Barbara Platek to speak about easing the transition from life to death.