This morning a posted a wonderful short film of Lord Philip Gould sharing his thoughts about his approaching death during the final weeks of his life.
I participate in Google+ where I have been excited and stimulated by things that are shared, the great conversations and connections I make.
My post on Philip Gould encouraged +Chris Holly to point me in the direction of a film called Griefwalker.
This documentary introduces us to Stephen Jenkinson, the leader of a palliative care counselling team at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Through his daytime job, he has been at the deathbed of well over 1,000 people. What he sees over and over, he says, is “a wretched anxiety and an existential terror” even when there is no pain. Indicting the practice of palliative care itself, he has made it his life’s mission to change the way we die – to turn the act of dying from denial and resistance into an essential part of life.
This is a thought provoking documentary on a charismatic spiritual man. It will take several viewings to fully absorb the nuances of the film. There is the powerful recounting of Stephens encounter with parents whose daughter is dying, and how he helped guide them to accept and experience her death in a non-clinical and real way. It was very moving.
Take the time to watch this film I think you’ll find it worth it.
Phew! I can breathe a sigh of relief, (I talk to myself— quite a bit too)!
“One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening.” – Franklin P. Jones
Most people talk to themselves at least every few days, and many report talking to themselves on an hourly basis. What purpose is served by this seemingly irrational behavior? Previous research has suggested that such self-directed speech in children can help guide their behavior. For example, children often talk themselves step-by-step through tying their shoelaces, as if reminding themselves to focus on the job in hand.
Can talking to oneself also help adults?
In a recent study published in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, psychologists Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Daniel Swingley (University of Pennsylvania) conducted a series of experiments to discover whether talking to oneself can help when searching for particular objects. The studies were inspired by observations that people often audibly mutter to themselves when trying to find, for example, a jar of Peanut Butter on a supermarket shelf, or the stick of butter in their fridge. [continue reading…]
You must watch this.
In “When I Die” Philip Gould shares his thoughts and insights as he confronts his impending death from oesophageal cancer. How do we approach death whilst embracing life? How can we change the conversation around death and palliative care for the terminally ill? Please share this film and join the conversation #WhenIDie. Philip believed that for the terminally ill and those close to them, there can be moments of joy, resolution and inspiration just as intense as those of fear, discomfort and sadness.
Filmed during the last 2 weeks of Philip’s life, this intimate portrait reveals his quest to find purpose and meaning in what he called “The Death Zone”. He had been diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in 2008 and was given three months to live in the summer of 2011.
Philip Gould’s book, “When I Die: Lessons from the Death Zone” is published in the UK by Little Brown. Proceeds from the book will go to the National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Fund (donations to http://www.justgiving.com/nogcf ) and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity (donations to http://www.royalmarsden.org/philipgould )
DIRECTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER : Adrian Steirn EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Matthew Freud & Elisabeth Murdoch PRODUCER: Nicola Howson ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Harriet Pratten DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Damon Hyland VIDEO EDITOR: Benjamin Haskins CINEMATOGROPHY: Richard Gregory, Oran O’Reilly, James Suter COLOUR: Leon Visser GRAPHICS: Zee Muller BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOGRAPHY: Gary Van Wyk SCREENWRITER: Andy Ellis PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Emily Forbes
What makes some people give blood and bake casseroles for their neighbors, while others mutter about taxes from behind closed blinds? A new paper published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science finds that part of the answer—but not all—may be in their genes.
The hormones oxytocin and vasopressin are thought to affect how people behave toward each other. For example, lab tests have found that people play nicer in economic games after having oxytocin squirted up their nose. “This is an attempt to take this into the real world a little bit,” says Michael Poulin, of the University at Buffalo. He co-wrote the paper with Anneke Buffone of the University at Buffalo and E. Alison Holman of the University of California, Irvine. “We really haven’t seen it applied as much to broader-scale social behaviors—giving to charity, participation in the civic arena, and so on.” [continue reading…]
