Last Breath Awareness: A New & Bold Approach on Death for the West

This book offers every caregiving professional a unique system to explore the final breath. The universality of death is no secret. What is especially revealing is how Last Breath Awareness provides professionals-clergy counselor death doula physician nurse social worker teacher-with tools for understanding a most important ending of all: their own! All too often issues around aging illness and death are dealt with conceptually. This left-brain tendency only distances us from the sobering reality of the inevitable final breath and instead reinforces misleading cultural illusions of lasting youth and a magically ever after. And professionals are not exempt from falling into such a trance. Founder of Conversing with Death(R) and psychotherapist Kevin Quiles is breaking this spell for caregiving professionals. Combining fifteen years of hospice service with well over a decade of specialized training the author has carefully designed imaginary and simulated exercises that familiarize us with common mental and emotional patterns among the dying. Now part of a solid and systematized mindfulness training program these unique methods generate a felt sense of what it is like to die. This unique language of death undoubtedly has greater personal and professional benefits than the brief glances we devote to the last phase of life. Trained caregivers will discover a more intentional lifestyle that promotes compassion to those around them. Professionally Last Breath Awareness will lead the reader into deeper connections with patients and clients who are suffering from the angst that comes from aging illness and death.