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Contemplative Caregiving
Finding Healing, Compassion, and Spiritual Growth through End-of-Life Care
1 of 1 copy available
Contemplative Caregiving is an indispensable guide for end-of-life caregivers and for anyone seeking to transform experiences of caregiving and grief. Rather than leading to burnout and despair, caring for those who are suffering and dying can enrich our lives with meaning and further our own spiritual growth and resilience. Whether you are caring for a loved one with cancer or dementia, grieving a sudden traumatic loss, or even serving time in prison, Contemplative Caregiving offers encouragement for showing up to the fullness of life in whatever those circumstances may be. Healing, compassion, and spiritual growth are available to us all, in this lifetime, right now.
Baugher’s unique style of integrating social scientific research on caregiving and grief with teachings from Buddhist, contemplative Christian, and other wisdom traditions illuminates how we each can transform experiences of loss and suffering into a path of compassion. Contemplative Caregiving weaves together powerful stories from interviews with diverse hospice caregivers—Vietnam veterans, nurses, housewives, Catholic nuns, those convicted of murder—with the author’s own journey toward wholeness in the face of grief and traumatic loss, including the murder of his own mother. Through rich storytelling, teachings on compassion, and skillful contemplative exercises, Baugher invites you to join him in exploring the healing power of contemplative caregiving.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 16, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780834841994
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780834841994
- File size: 1721 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 25, 2019
Baugher (Creative Social Change), a social science researcher and longtime hospice volunteer, illuminates the life-giving opportunities that arise from the hospice experience (both those in hospice and caregivers) in this compassionate and intimate look at caring for the dying. Baugher describes how he began caregiving at age 18, as a means to cope with the trauma of his mother’s murder and being estranged from his father. With hindsight, he notes that his early volunteering was more about him than his patients: “I was so blinded by my glowingly good intentions.” But that early desire to seem like a caring person led him on a path of humility and true healing as he came to view hospice work as a transformative spiritual practice. Baugher relays stories of caregivers from many walks of life: prison inmates, Vietnam veterans, and people seeking to assuage guilt over not having cared for dying loved ones, among others. While examining preconceptions and behaviors that can undermine the quality of caregiving, such as romanticizing hospice work and infantilizing a dying person, Baugher contends that everyone has the capacity to care, and that learning from mistakes leads to spiritual growth. Each chapter includes a section called “Contemplation,” which often poses a question (for instance, “Who would you be without your grief?”). While this elegant work will be of particular value to hospice volunteers, Baugher’s wisdom will resonate with anyone who finds themselves caring for someone at the end-of-life. -
May 1, 2019
Educator and social science researcher Baugher (coeditor, Leading with Spirit, Presence, and Authenticity) distills caregiving practices to foster emotional and spiritual growth in the lives of individuals, organizations, and society. Using a holistic point of view, he delves into the postures of compassion and healing, citing the benefits of caring with a playful spirit and as a means toward achieving mindfulness. VERDICT Baugher removes the drudgery from caregiving to offer readers greater goals on which to focus. Recommended for all caregivers and anyone about to enter that space.
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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