• 2024 Coalition of Visionary Resources Gold Award
• Shares practices for emotional soothing, breathing techniques to reduce anxiety and pain, ways to reduce stress during the active dying process, and techniques to physically care for the dying, including methods to assist bedridden individuals
• Explores ceremony and energetic boundary guidelines, Reiki and ancestral support techniques, and herbal care for nourishing and healing on a spirit level
• Presents self-care methods for moving with grief, ideas for "things to do" when there is nothing to do, mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality, as well as guidance for talking with children about death and dying
• Winner of a 2020 Independent Publisher "IPPY" award
Just as we might prepare a nest for one about to give birth, so can we lovingly prepare a nest for one who is dying.
In this practical and compassionate guide, death doula educator Anne-Marie Keppel incorporates ancient and modern techniques, mindfulness practices, and herbal support to show how anyone can care for the dying, whether at home, in hospice, or even in the ICU. She demystifies the dying process by explaining what the body goes through during end of life and presents practices for emotional soothing and other ways to reduce stress and anxiety during the active dying process. The author provides techniques to physically care for the dying, including methods to assist bedridden individuals. She shares ceremony and energetic boundary guidelines, Reiki and ancestral support techniques, and herbal care for nourishing and healing on a spirit level.
Providing support for caregivers and loved ones as well, Anne-Marie explores self-care methods for moving with grief, ideas for "things to do" when there is nothing to do, and mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality. She also offers visualizations and techniques for talking with children about death and dying.
Sharing glimpses into the world of spirit to reveal the poignancy of the dying process, the author shows that death is a sacred rite of passage we all experience. Anne-Marie Keppel is a death doula educator and founder of the nonprofit Village Deathcare. A nurse assistant, Reiki Master, and lifelong meditator, she guides individuals transitioning out of life and assists families with the end-of-life journey. Experienced in home funerals, green burials, and psychedelic-assisted therapy, her work as a death doula has been published nationally in the Washington Times, on USNews.com, and in PULP Magazine. She won an Independent Publisher "IPPY" award in 2020. Anne-Marie delights in the joy of living with her family in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Foreword by Karen Wyatt, M.D.
An Introduction to Death Nesting
About This Book
One
Beyond Advance Directives
Take Notes
More than Just Paperwork
Two
Preparing the Nest
Establishing the Protective Shell
Preparing the Inner Nest
Caregiving's Inner Circle
Secret Nesting
Weathering Our Dying
Three
Dying Is a Sensory Experience
Hearing
Smell
Taste
Sight
Touch
Four
What the Physical Body Does during the Dying Process
Aches and Pains
Temperature
Breathing and Heart Rate
Eating, Digestion, and Elimination
Handwashing
Wound Care
Sponge Bathing
Moisturizing
Bedding and Lying in Bed
What to Pack in a Hospital Bag
Five
Mind, Spirit, and Emotion in the Dying Process
Suggestions for Mental Soothing
Psychedelics and Virtual Reality
Listening
Ancestor Comforts
Tying Together a Timeline
Sleep, Rest, and Separation
Time, Space, and Rhythm
Spiritual Support
Reiki for the Dying
A Time for Shrines
Six
Discomforts during Caregiving
Expressing the Very Difficult
Words Are Not Always What Is Needed
When What Is Happening Is Against Your D
