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Your Death Box
As you age, you may begin to worry about what will happen when you leave this life behind. An easy way to gain a little piece of mind is by creating a Death Box. A Death Box is an important way to prepare for the future. It consists of a collection of select documents to ease the responsibilities your loved ones will face when you’re deceased. Why is a Death Box Important? Thinking about what comes after you die is difficult, but through planning and organizing a proper Death Box, you can regain a sense of control, even empowerment. Keeping specific records in one place, not only legal ones, makes it easier for you or others to locate them when needed. Perhaps you will include personal letters to your children, or something that you simply want to keep safe and readily accessible. |
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By creating this box of personal papers, you will be prompted to assess your end of life wishes, which is always a good thing and is typically avoided. Getting organized, often with the help of various professionals, will equip you to share your wishes with loved ones, which is sometimes a challenging but necessary discussion.
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What are the advantages of preparing?
Nobody knows the future, but what we do know is that life changes “on a dime”. We are all dying on different timelines, and for those with a life limiting illness, the move to “palliative” can be easier because the work to prepare has been attended to. No matter the circumstances, conversations about death and related wishes are much easier when we don’t have a death timeline. Certainly, for families who experience the sudden death of a loved one, this can be significantly easier to cope with when preparations have already been made. As a “Death Defying Society”, we avoid the D words of Death, Dying, Dead, and Deceased, even though this is the one thing we all have in common. Replacing these words with, “passed on, passed away, departed, moved on”, because they’re easier to say, is symbolic of our general discomfort around death. This is important to examine, to change our perspective, and to teach our loved ones that death is part of life through our willingness to plan for it. |
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“Grief Brain” is another reason to prepare for death, accepting that your loved ones will not be in the best position to find paperwork, attend to legal matters, or to learn new skills while grieving. Loss is one of the most demanding experiences a person can endure as grief not only impacts our emotions but also our cognitive functioning.
Understanding the effects of “Grief Brain” can allow us to do the right thing while we are living, to create our Death Box in support of those who will be grieving when we die. You can learn more about "grief brain" here. You can also visit our webpage on ”Power in Planning", to find important tips on matters to be addressed while living, and to decrease the burden that often accompanies loss. Review our comprehensive list of Death Related Tips. How do I create a Death Box? Click here for your free download. |
