“Fragments of you are scattered everywhere, Like the fading winter sun; I go nowhere you are not .”
My work in supporting the dying reaches past working with individuals and their loved ones. I am available to share my experiences with groups in a contemplative gathering. This can take place in-person or online. If you would like to organize an event for your organization, community or church group, I am happy to lead one of these meaningful Willow Workshops™ or customize a workshop that fits your particular needs. Here are a few examples of workshop possibilities.
how to stop procrastinating with EOL planning
Naming and moving forward with your EOL planning priorities is a personal journey influenced by many factors. While some EOL planning tasks may seem logistically difficult to start or complete, it’s the emotional difficulty that often brings up powerful feelings such as sadness, fear, or anger. Resistance to, or fear of this emotional intensity may lead you to procrastinate with your EOL planning. Heart-centred and holistic end-of-life planning is not about checking items off a big list. It includes emotions, relationships and looking at planning as a total coherent system.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Get introduced to a planning checklist and gain insight into how this moves beyond conventional planning tasks.
● Begin to identify your end-of-life planning priorities.
● Name what’s stopping you from being in action or completing your EOL planning.
● Gain some clarity about how to move forward and feel inspired to get into action.
values, wishes and who and what matter most
Making sense of life and death before making practical arrangements will ensure that your EOL planning reflects your values and priorities. Both your living and your dying are impacted by having clarity about your values, wishes and who and what matter most. Values, Wishes and Who and What Matter Most will guide you to explore the reality of your mortality in a fun and interactive workshop. Making sense of life and death before making practical arrangements will ensure that your end-of-life planning reflects your values and priorities. Whether you have days or decades left to live, thinking about and preparing for your death will inspire you to live your best life now.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Articulate your core values and how they impact your living and dying.
● Get present to your hopes and fears around your inevitable death.
● Gain some clarity about who and what matter most.
● Become inspired to get into action around how to live and die well.
conscious health, personal care, and final wishes
Consciously or unconsciously, your past experiences with death and dying shape your responses to EOL planning, death, dying and grief. We all have hopes and fears about what might happen (to us and/or the people we leave behind) in the time leading up to our death, at the moment of our death, and after we die. We will ensure that your choices around end-of-life planning reflects your values and priorities. Whether you have days or decades to live, thinking about and preparing for your death will change how you die and inspire you to live your best life now.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Learn how past experiences with death and dying can shape your own end-of-life plans.
● Discover what is most important to you regarding your health and personal care wishes.
● Become inspired to get into action around articulating your final wishes.
the 5-minute legacy love letter
Writing a Legacy Love Letter™ can positively transform your relationship to the intended recipient even if it’s never read by anyone but you. With six meaningful prompts, the 5-Minute Legacy Love Letter™ helps you write lasting messages to important people in your life, and transform those relationships in the here and now. In this workshop, you’ll be warmed up and guided to write at least one Legacy Love Letter™ to someone in your life. We also discuss how this powerful tool can be used for people supporting or assisting others. Because a sudden death is always a possibility, writing a Legacy Love Letter™ will create peace of mind that nothing is left unsaid.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Get introduced to and experience using Willow’s end-of-life planning tool, The 5-Minute Legacy Love Letter™ .
● Experience how writing a Legacy Love Letter™ creates an opportunity to reflect and connect.
● Discover how writing a lasting message can impact your relationships, here and now.
writing your heart will as a manifesto for living
A Heart Will™ can serve as a manifesto for living that calls you to live with intention. Your Heart Will™ is a tool to help you reflect on your life and create lasting messages for those you love and for future generations. Sometimes referred to as an Ethical Will, Spirit Will or Legacy Letter, your Heart Will™ can be given to specific people at the end of your life, or be shared at a goodbye ritual or ceremony after you die. You might even choose to share your Heart Will™ with others before you die! Writing your Heart Will™ is also a powerful discovery process that supports you to live and love fully. In essence, your Heart Will™ can serve as a manifesto for living to ground and guide you when you need it.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Get introduced to and experience using Willow’s free tool, How to Write Your Heart Will™ .
● Discover how you can use this tool for yourself and to assist others with legacy writing.
● Experience the impact of reflecting on your life and engaging in the process of discerning who and what matter most.
how to create and live your legacy
A legacy is anything you leave behind after your death including the impact you’ve had on people and the planet. Living with conscious intention supports you to create a legacy that reflects who and what matter most to you. No matter what kind of life you live, how much money you have, or what you think of your accomplishments, consider that you have a legacy. Inside a thoughtful and dynamic group process you will reflect on what you want your legacy to be and what actions you can take now to create and live that legacy.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Explore the concept of legacy and what it means to you.
● Reflect on your hopes and fears about your legacy.
● Identify what you believe and hope people will remember you for.
● Discover how the way you are living now, aligns with your desired legacy.
remembering and being remembered
The concepts and acts of remembering and being remembered mean different things to different people. Reflecting on why and how you remember people (or not) can inform and inspire how you live your life. In Remembering and Being Remembered we’ll look at the who, what, how and why of remembering. Why do you remember people who have died? How do you remember them and how are you impacted by either remembering or not remembering? This workshop will also remind us that we each have an impact on the lives of others.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Dig into the heart of why you remember those who have died.
● Explore what it is about being remembered that matters to you.
● Consider the impact your deceased have had on you and that you may have on others when you die.
● Be called to action to honour the memory of your deceased in ways that work for you.
9 things to include in your departure directions
Every act of how you are cared for after you die is an opportunity for meaningful rituals that can build, nourish and heal individuals and communities. Completing your Departure Directions™ will give you peace of mind knowing your final wishes will reflect who you are and what matters most to you while alleviating stress, chaos and worry for the people you leave behind. Articulating and writing your Departure Directions™ will benefit you in the here and now. Understanding all that matters in the end, is a pathway to living and loving fully, now. Consider that every act of how you are cared for after you die is an opportunity for meaningful rituals that can build, nourish and heal individuals and communities.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Get introduced to Willow’s end-of-life planning tool, 9 Things to Include in Your Departure Directions™.
● Explore the factors that shape your Departure Directions™.
● Gain some clarity about who and what matter most to guide you in making your choices.
● Become inspired to get into action around how to live and die well.
greening your death and aligning your values
Many of us do our best to live mindfully and walk lightly on our planet. Yet, we tend to give little consideration to the environmental impact of what happens to us after we die. Partly, this is because we live in a culture fraught with death denial. Typically, when someone dies, a funeral provider is called to remove the person and arrange for either burial or cremation. Most people don’t take the time to understand the array of options within these two choices, or what alternatives are available in addition to these two choices. The good news is, many steps can be taken to green your death no matter where you live, and new options for greening your death are growing.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Consider and articulate what about greening your death matters to you.
● Discover the environmental impacts of various choices for after-death care.
● Learn about green options that may be available in your region.
● Consider the best way to align your values with your choices.
5steps for successful end-of-life planning conversations
Have you ever started to talk about some aspect of end-of-life planning with someone and got shut down? Or maybe you’ve been wanting to talk about end-of-life planning but you’re lost about how to even broach the topic. You have ideas in your mind about how your people are going to react, and it’s just too uncomfortable to go there. Many of us understand the importance of preparing for your someday, one-day, inevitable death while you’re still healthy enough to do that. But talking about death in a death-phobic and death-denying culture can be a challenge. Whether you’re thinking about your own end-of-life planning or you want to facilitate plans for someone else, it really helps to talk about it first!
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
● Increase your readiness to undertake end-of-life planning, and other challenging conversations.
● Gain insight into the intentions, concerns, context, and importance of end-of-life planning conversations in your life.
● Be guided through key steps for having successful and meaningful end-of-life planning conversations.
● Gain clarity about who and what matter most.
This series encompasses the following three workshops:
How to Stop Procrastinating with End-of-Life Planning
Values, Wishes and Who and What Matter Most
Conscious Health, Personal Care, and Final Wishes
series - making sense of life & death
The inevitably of death is the one thing in life we’re certain about, yet most people would do anything to avoid talking or even thinking about it. It’s certain your future will include death, after-death care, including how you’ll be laid to rest, and the settling of your estate regardless of its size. It’s possible that your future will include disability, serious illness, sudden death, a funeral or ceremony of some kind and the gifting or distribution of your financial assets and precious possessions. This 3-part workshop series will guide you to explore the reality of your mortality in a fun and interactive workshop series. Making sense of life and death before making practical arrangements will ensure that your end-of-life planning reflects your values and priorities. Whether you have days or decades left to live, thinking about and preparing for your death will inspire you to live your best life now.
IN THIS WORKSHOP SERIES YOU WILL:
● Get introduced to Willow’s Reality of Our Mortality Planning Checklist and discover what’s stopping you from being in action or completing your EOL planning.
● Articulate your hopes and fears around your inevitable death, and get present to your core values and how they impact your living and dying.
● Discover what is most important to you regarding your health and person-care wishes.
● Learn how past experiences with death and dying can shape your own end-of-life plans.
series - Legacy, Love letters & Heart wills
Consciously or not, you are creating your legacy now. A legacy is anything you leave behind after your death including the impact you’ve had on people and the planet. No matter what kind of life you live, how much money you have, or what you think of your accomplishments, consider that you have a legacy. Inside a thoughtful and dynamic group process you will reflect on your life and begin drafting lasting messages for those you love and future generations. Writing your Heart Will™ and Legacy Love Letter™ sometimes referred to as ethical wills or legacy letters) will give you peace of mind that nothing is left unsaid. Contemplating your legacy this way is a powerful discovery process that will support you to live your remaining days with meaning and purpose.
IN THIS WORKSHOP SERIES YOU WILL:
● Experience the impact of reflecting on your life and engaging in the process of discerning who and what matter most.
● Get introduced to and experience using Willow’s 5-Minute Legacy Love Letter™ and How to Write Your Heart Will™ tools.
● Get clear on the legacy you are living and the legacy you want to leave.
This series encompasses the following three workshops:
The 5-Minute Legacy Love Letter™
Writing Your Heart Will™ as a Manifesto for Living
How to Create and Live Your Legacy
This 3-part workshop series could encompasses all three of the following workshops:
9 Things to Include in Your Departure Directions™
Greening Your Death and Aligning Your Values
5 Steps for Successful End-of-Life Planning Conversations
series - departure directions
Departure Directions™ is Willow’s term for your written guidelines—determined by your values, beliefs and priorities—for how you wish to be cared for and remembered after you die. Completing your Departure Directions™ will give you peace of mind knowing your final wishes will reflect who you are and what matters most to you while alleviating stress, chaos and worry for the people you leave behind. Articulating and writing your Departure Directions™ will also benefit you in the here and now. Understanding all that matters in the end, is a pathway to living and loving fully, now. Consider that every act of how you are cared for after you die is an opportunity for meaningful rituals that can build, nourish and heal individuals and communities. Many of us do our best to live mindfully and walk lightly on our planet. Yet, we tend to give little consideration to the environmental impact of what happens to us after we die. Whether you’re thinking about your after-death care or you want to facilitate arrangements for someone else, Willow’s end-of-life planning tool, 5 Steps for Successful End-of-Life Planning Conversations will guide you on how to start those conversations and what questions to ask.
IN THIS WORKSHOP SERIES YOU WILL:
● Explore the factors that shape your Departure Directions TM .
● Consider and articulate what about greening your death matters to you.
● Learn about green options for after-death care that may be available in your region and the environmental impacts of various choices.
● Be guided through key steps for having successful and meaningful end-of-life planning conversations.