Anam Cara
“The Soul Friend to the Dying”
The Gaelic title refers to the “soul-friend,” a lovingly stern companion to whom you can, in stringent honesty, unburden your heart as you move toward enlightenment. This is a deep, mindful interaction with someone who gives you the honorable respect “to be seen” in life and develops an intimate connection of unconditional love.
The Anam Cara understands both Doing-ness and Being-ness and provides opportunities for reflection and fun.
End of Life Letter Facilitation
Incorporating the 5 Tasks of the Dying, our Anam Cara dictates the letters of forgiveness, gratitude, love and goodbye for family and friends.
Life Review
When a person is dying, they will naturally review their life. A person is so much more than their physical presence. A person’s legacy is not just one’s money, offspring or people’s memory of them…it is that individual’s values, stories, experiences and wisdom. This process could take months or years of the person silently meditating or laying in a comatose state.
If the dying friend can answer questions with speech, our Anam Cara may document the life review reflections in any preferred format: hand written, typed, audio recording, video recording.
Audio and video recording can be privately posted to You Tube for future and remote access. If the dying member is not verbally communicative, they may still reflect questions that are given to them when prompted and that can help their processing.
Memorabilia Review
Reviewing old family photo albums sparks nostalgic memories of one’s life and helps your dying member with their letting go process of people, places and their memories. We spend time with your loved one to allow them to review their memory bank that was created with the impressions of others.
Final Experiences Facilitation
What experiences would your loved one appreciate having in their short time left? Some ideas for final life experiences:
- Fine Dining Restaurant
- Movie Theatre
- Live Theatre
- A Drive to the Mountains
- Being Wheeled in the Park
- Attending a Speaker, Concert or Live Music
Teaching Facilitation
Everyone has something to teach the world and those around them. Our end of life experiences give us a final opportunity for imparting our knowledge, wisdom and interpretation of our life experience.
With this reflective activity, we ask your loved one to teach something.
For an Anam Cara Soul Friend for your loved one, please contact 310.270.9486.
