After reading your Spiritual Handbook text and Feldman on the dying process, discuss how you anticipate accepting your own mortality.

ANSWER:

 I learned in nursing school that when you are young your cells and growth are still continuing but once you reach age 25 your cells ceased and this is consider the peak of your life and that is consider a full life. One of the most difficult issues each person must face is that of our own mortality. Nothing is certain but death and the fact that one day, somehow, all of our lives will come to an end. Death and dying are sensitive topics that many people prefer to avoid, while others are nearly paralyzed by them, terrified of the unknown. Death is one of the most frightening unknowns imaginable, and it’s something we all must face. And for too many people, fear of both the process of dying and what happens afterwards casts long, dark shadows over what should be years of contentment and growth. Death is not something that people think of everyday and even though everyone have to die someday most people say they will deal with it when the time come.

I speak from experience. Well into adulthood, I struggled with a paralyzing fear of death brought on by the premature loss of numerous family members. For years, my fear of death was so terrifying I could hardly talk about it, let alone think of death of a friend. Having worked in the healthcare field this is something that you see all the time and it’s very scary, saddening and devastating all at the same time. For me, the thought of death had never crossed my mind until 2005 when I was diagnosed with several health problems. It was then that I started to ask am I going to died and that was the question for years. But now that they have so much advance medication it allow people with different health problems to advance their life with the fact that they take medication as directed.

In Dr. Brook presentation she note that the Young-Old outlook is a more healthy approach to facing mortality and involves keeping aging in the proper perspective. Dr. Brooks (2014) says that with those having the Young-Old outlook, “there is not a high percentage that spends their latter life in a nursing home.” According to Felder (2014) there are five steps people face when dealing with dying and they are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Dr. Jeanne Brooks (2014) also states, “How one chooses to live their life will determine how they move into this season. For me I 29 right now and I take life one step at a time and I surely try to make sure that I am living me last days on earth to the fullest because I never know when it’s my time. Truly it’s a blessing to still be here on earth, for people that are my age and young are dying more and more. But honestly, I am still at that stage where I know I have to die one day but I am just not a the point where I accept that and I hope when the time come for me to depart this earth and go on to be with my heavenly father and live an everlasting life, I will be a peace with that and let go.

Reference

Brooks, Jeanne, Liberty University. (2014). Aging with Grace [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://learn.liberty.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_6555_1%26url%3D

Feldman, R. S. (2014). Development Across the Lifespan. Amherst: Pearson.