40 phrases from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

40 phrases from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The phrases of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross They allow us to reflect on life, death and how to face this painful process.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born in Zurich, in 1926, and died in Arizona in 2004, however, her thinking is still in force. She was a very prominent writer, she dedicated part of her investigation to the process of death, to palliative care and how to face death even with joy.

Brief biography of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Elisabeth was the first of the three trillion daughters of the family. All the sisters wore the same, carried out the same activities and received the same gifts. This made people not conceived as individuals, but as a group, which affected Elisabeth's sense of identity.

At five years she was hospitalized due to pneumonia and at that time the little girl witnessed the death of her roommate. This was his first experience with death. At another time, he observed how a neighbor reassured his family as he was about to die due to a fracture in the neck.

All These experiences led Elizabeth to consider death as a stage of life, For what all people should be prepared to face it with peace, dignity and tranquility.

Her father did not want her to study medicine, but still she enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zurich and in 1957 she graduated.

In your academic tour He discovered that many health professionals evaded the issue of death with their patients, leaving them in their deepest loneliness. That is, the medical faculties focused on the recovery of patients, but not in death.

After the success of his first book, On death and dying (1969), Elisabeth dedicated her clinical practice to dying patients and the establishment of a "home of peace", a center for healing in which he helped terminal patients.

Almost all his work is about death and the act of dying, describing the different phases, such as denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance.

Next, we will review some of Elisabeth Kübless's phrases about life and death.

Elisabeth Kübless phrases

Among the phrases of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are the following:

It is very important that you only do what you love to do. It can be poor, you can go hungry, you can lose your car, you may have to move to a place in poor condition to live, but you will live totally.

It is not necessary to go to India or any other place to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence in your room, your garden or even in your bathtub.

There is within each of us a potential of goodness beyond our imagination; for giving that it does not seek reward; for listening without judging; for loving unconditionally.

The greatest gift of humanity, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our decisions built from love or fear.

You are worthy and worthy of being loved, as you are, on your own.

When someone tells you their story again and again, they are trying to find out something.

There are no errors, there are no coincidences. All events are blessings that have been granted to learn.

We need time to overcome the pain of loss. We have to get down to work, really get to know him, to learn.

The fundamental lesson that we must all learn is unconditional love, which not only includes others, but also ourselves.

Live, so you don't have to look back and say: 'God, how I wasted my life'.

We do things with hope because they give life to our life.

In many ways, the loss shows us what is beautiful, while love teaches us who.

Love is really the only thing we can possess, conserve and carry with us.

A ship exists in the ocean, even if it sails beyond the limits of our view. The ship's people have not disappeared; They are simply moving to another shore.

Everything in this life has a purpose, there are no errors, there are no coincidences.

I have told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.

For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values ​​of life can originate in the thought and the study of death.

Only when we really know and understand that we have limited time on earth, and that we have no way of knowing when our time ends, we will begin to live every day as if it were the only one we had.

My patients did not teach me how to die, but how to live.

The reality is that you will cry forever. It will not "overcome" the loss of a loved one; You will learn to live with it. You will heal and rebuild around the loss you have suffered. You will be complete again, but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same or would you like to be.

Seeing the peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a fleeting star; One of one million lights in a vast sky that lights up for a brief moment only to disappear at the endless night forever.

Is the war anything other than the need to face death, conquer it and dominate it, leave it, a peculiar form of denial of our mortality?.

Those who have strength and love to sit with a dying patient in silence who goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither fearsome nor painful, but a quiet cessation of body functioning.

Simple life on the farm was all for me. Nothing is more relaxing after a long flight than reaching the winding road that led to my house. The tranquility of the night was more relaxing than a sleepiness.

I think that modern medicine has become a prophet that offers a life free of pain. It is nonsense. The only thing I know that people are truly healthy is unconditional love.

Death is not painful. It is the most beautiful experience you will have.

Any natural and normal being, facing the loss of any kind, will pass from the clash to acceptance.

If one protects the storm cannons one would never see the beauty of their sculptures.

Those who learned to know death, instead of fearing and fighting it, become our teachers about life.

I tell people who take care of the people who are dying, if you really love that person and want to help him, he is with them when his end approaches. Sit with them, you don't even have to talk. You don't have to do anything, but really be there with them.

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry. On the contrary, our concern must be living while we are alive, to free our inner being from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to adjust to the external definitions of who and what we are.

The five stages: denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance are part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with which we lost. They are tools that help us to raise and identify what we can feel. But they are not linear stops in the pain timeline.

Learning lessons are a bit like reaching maturity. You are not suddenly happier, rich or powerful, but you understand the world around you better, and you are at peace with yourself. The lessons learned from life are not about making your life perfect, but seeing life as it was destined to be seen.

People are like a stained glass window. They shine and shine when the sun is out, but when it darkens, its true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

There is an inner voice, if we are willing to listen to it, which tells us with all certainty when to enter the unknown.

All theories and all the science of the world cannot help anyone as much as a human being who is not afraid to open their hearts to another.

Life is arduous. The life is a fight. Life is like going to school; We receive many lessons. The more we learn, the more difficult the lessons are put.

Medicine has its limits, reality that is not taught in the Faculty. Another reality that is not taught is that a compassionate heart can heal almost everything.

A few months in the field I was convinced that being a good doctor has nothing to do with anatomy, surgery or prescribe the right medications. The best service that a doctor can provide to a patient is to be a kind, attentive, affectionate and sensitive person.

And for the first time in my life, the exit was that of faith. This faith came from the deep knowledge that I had enough strength and courage to be able to suffer this agony and the certainty that we are never given more than we can endure. Suddenly I understood that I just had to cease my fight, transform my resistance into submission and simply say "yes".

These are some of Elisabeth Kübless-Ross's most shocking phrases about life and death.

101 phrases of life to reflect

Bibliography:

  • Kübler-Ross, e. (2009). Death: The Final Stage. Simon and Schuster.
  • Kübler-Ross, e., & Kessler, D. (2005). On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. Simon and Schuster.
  • Kübler-Ross, e. (1973). On death and dying. Routledge.
  • Kübler-Ross, e. (1974). Questions and Answers on Death and Dying. Collier Books/Macmillan Publishing Co.