Death is an event that begets feelings of trepidation and sorrow. In the face of the gravity of passing, crucial figures emerge to honor death as a profound transition. Among them is spiritual consultant Catherine Duncan, who champions individuals struggling with chronic illness, transitional periods, grief, and loss as they work to infuse their lives with heightened meaning.
In addition to being a board-certified chaplain and certified spiritual director, Duncan is certified in positive neuroplasticity with Rick Hanson, PhD and a range of alternative healing modalities, including Reiki, Healing Touch, qigong, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)/tapping, and sound healing. We spoke with Catherine Duncan about the specificities of her invaluable work, her recent book, and her overall outlook and teachings about life’s major transitions.
Much like the nature of the liminal state between life and death, Duncan’s call to the work is much greater and intricate than a single moment. Rather, it is a series of events that uniquely heightened her authority to assist others. “After facing my death as a child and then having a near death experience in my thirties white water rafting on a Time Inc corporate trip, I was ready to listen deeply to where I was being called and quit my successful, lucrative corporate job,” she explains. “I have been led every step of my path. Not long after leaving Time Inc, a friend suggested graduate theology school. I had never thought of this before and I knew this was the path. I received my Master of Arts in Theology, and Divinity and then felt called to become a chaplain.”
Duncan went on to work for years as a hospice chaplain, which sat in alignment with her overarching purpose. Because she had faced the reality of her passing and what it meant to exist in the delicate balance between life and death, she felt uniquely equipped to assist others. As she continued to usher people to the other side, she honored a significant realization. “Death is not an end. It is a sacred transition where for years I helped birth people out of their body.”
This was one among many galvanizing moments which culminated in her recent book, Everyday Awakening – Five Practices for Living Fully, Feeling Deeply and Coming into Your Heart and Soul. “After accompanying hundreds of people at the end of life and witnessing so many people days before they died have an awakening and realization of the preciousness of life, and then they died, was soul shaping,” said Duncan. Naturally, she started thinking about ways that she could compel others to honor this realization in the absence of imminent death. “I felt moved to write a book about how we can awaken, and live from our heart and soul, right now. You do not have to wait until the end of your life or you are in crisis to feel fully alive right now. It is a conscious choice and a daily practice.”
“My book, Everyday Awakening, has 42 exercises on how to feel deep peace, ease, and joy now. It may be through a breath exercise, a self-soothing practice, a somatic body movement, singing, humming, praying, writing, working with affirmation, meditations, to name a few practices. Understanding what we did not get in our childhood and then giving it to ourselves is part of the healing journey. We can all heal and it is a daily choice.”
The teachings of the book—living fully, feeling deeply, and coming into the heart and soul—are deeply personal practices. This understanding sits at the core of Duncan’s daily practices with clients. “In my work as a chaplain and now in my private practice, meeting a person on their path and providing love and presence is the foundation. Exploring what gives a person strength and life and helping the person feel into that strength, and deep inner peace and live from their soul is the core of my work today.”
One of Duncan’s major goals is to assist people in the transition “from stress to presence”. While she worked with hospice patients, there existed a shared and sanctified understanding that made this quite intuitive and natural, rather than difficult. During our interview, Duncan named the peace that hospice patients established as the norm.
“When I worked at our level 1 trauma hospital, that was a different experience where death was often sudden and unexpected. Walking with a patient and holding presence, love, acceptance, and support as they processed and opened into dying was very sacred. Patients ranged from a place of acceptance and readiness to needing to process and let go of anger, resentment, shame, fear. Helping patients open into their heart, and the universal love and guidance that was all around them was a sacred journey and this enabled people to let go and transform.”
As far as embarking on this journey, Duncan ended our interview on a note powerful enough to actuate anyone grappling with the reality of time’s finite nature. “How are you choosing to live your life? Are you feeling deep peace, ease, and aliveness? Or are you living on autopilot where your mind is running you? We can all choose to feel vibrantly alive, and awaken today. What are you choosing?”
