Healing at the Edge: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying [Two Day Workshop – February]
– Presented by Dale Borglum, PhD [CO-SPONSORED]

Why do some people experience wholeness as they approach death, while others lose themselves in denial, depression, distraction? Why is it that some of the most alive and awake Westerners I’ve known have been, almost without exception, people near death? Is there some powerful truth about life and about healing that you and I can receive from these few who, as they went through the process of dying, deeply realized their own wholeness?

Bringing emotional/spiritual support to someone with a life-threatening illness is a twofold task. First, help the client realize they are more than that which will die – the finite self – the body and personality. At the same time, honor this finite self, healing its woundedness, its identification with separateness. Rumi said, “Grief is the garden of compassion.” This transmuting separateness of grief into the connectedness of compassion is the heart of the work. Confusion, anxiety, depression, anger are typical responses arising as the end of a life approaches, both for patients and their families.

This presentation will explore possibilities for realizing wholeness at the edge of life where illness, grief, and loss arise. Both psychological and spiritual tools will be used in the investigation of these profound and challenging issues. We will offer participants the opportunity to explore the deeper questions surrounding death, healing, and the sacred so that each of us can better embody an enlivened sense of being in the world in each moment rather than a sense of isolation and denial.