CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
CONSCIOUS AGEING, CONSCIOUS DYING
2019, May 15th at 10 AM PT/ 7 PM CET

Peace and Happiness: Spirituality in Life and Death

WITH DOMINIQUE CASSIDY

Dominique writes on her Home Page:

“I have always been fascinated with the question of happiness. How to live a life filled with meaning and peace. Whether teaching Aikido, Yoga and Meditation or in my practice as a doctor, the question is always the same: is there a way to see ourself, the world and life in a way that allows for greater joy and freedom?”

In our conversation we explore our potential for happiness and how we can go through difficult moments like death, of a loved one or our own, by finding this place of inner peace and acceptance of what is so in the present moment.

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STREAMED HERE on May 15th, 2019

TIME STAMPS: WHERE to find WHAT in the Video

You find this around the indicated minutes:

0 Heidi’s Intro to the topic and to the guest Dominique.

2 Dominique introduces herself and her striving for peace and happiness

5 Acceptance before dying? – Crisis of transformation, disruption of the continuity,

8 “people die in most unexpected ways”: a story by Dominique and her insights which bring hope, take away the fear:

13 Process leading to death is a gradual grieving. Peeling off the layers. Spiritual process.

15 Spiritual inquiry a path to what is truly essential. Getting less distracted by identity. Letting go. Dying process is peeling off all those layers, to the true self.

17 Heidi: present world is not like that. How do you get the message to people who don’t believe in God?

Dominique defines the terms: 4 constituents body, social, psyche, spiritual dimension. Spirituality = 1. meaning of life, how to live that my life makes sense 2. What is beyond myself, which doesn’t need to be God. Atheists are very spiritual! Spirituality is just part of the human being!

22 Meaning of Life: another story by Dominique. An example of being aligned with the meaning of life.

27 All humans try to feel good and be happy, by finding the meaning of life. Spiritual texts try to answer the question.

29 Question to the psychiatrists – how do you deal with depressed people? D: so many ways of depression: Soon depression will be the main cause for invalidity! We believe that happiness comes from outside. If the outside things would bring happiness we would know it by now! Time to stop that experiment!

33 Depression is the believe that something is not right. Wrong beliefs make us suffer, the right beliefs make us happy!

35 Everything depends on the dual response, opposition and creative conflict. Fear of dying is directly connected to our believe in our identity and attachment. Remedy to fear of death: deep trust in God or understand and realise that what we are the essence. The body mind has nothing to do with WHO I AM.

39 Ramahashi’s words on his deathbed.

40 Can we make happen spiritual realisation? Water as an example for the direct path. Awakening is grace. It happens by itself but doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do anything.

43 Me and the world, fascination of our identity. We put our attention on the wrong place. The water and the ocean. – Start asking different questions, put your attention on other things etc. e.g. cultivating gratitude. Creating space for the magical shift.

46 Being in the presence like art or dancing. We can chose beliefs which are highly functional. Chose those which create more joy and happiness.

47 Heidi shares her experience: a moment of opening needed for being able to change beliefs. It is difficult: we need someone to help with that

50 Last story told by Dominique. Let go of resistance. .

HEIDI´S INTRO TO THE SHOW

A few weeks ago I participated at a video summit called ‎Dharma & The Evolution Of Conflict . I was blown away by the richness of contributions and the beautiful guests in these conversations. Along with prominent integralists like Ken Wilber, Jeff Salzman or Diane Hamilton I got to know inspiring people who I had never came across before with a lot to say about human life and spirituality in an integral context.

One of these amazing people was Dominique Cassidy whose presentation I enjoyed a lot. She mentioned that she is working also with the dying and so I thought to invite her for our series Conscious Living, Conscious Dying. By connecting with her I realised that her work in this world cannot be reduced to the end of life care, it has a much wider range. So it came naturally to schedule the conversation with her within the series CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER.

The conversation about happiness and peace in life and how we can get there – it is definitely a conversation that matters! Dominique is the living example of what she teaches. Allow yourself to be inspired by her way of being and by her message!

ABOUT DR. DOMINIQUE CASSIDY

Dominique is a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, as well as a Teacher

Dominique Cassidy got her MD from the School of Medicine Lausanne, and then specialised in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. She worked in geriatric, palliative care and general medicine, and then she specialised in cognitive behavioural psychotherapy, with a specific interest in mindfulness approaches and systemic therapy.
Dominique developed a « Conscious Body therapy » which works on symptoms like anxiety, sleep disorders, chronic pain etc.. It is based on movements, breathing exercise and meditation. Included in the treatments offered in different psychiatric facilities.
She also developed « Therapeutic Meditation » as a therapeutic group for psychiatric ambulatory patients.

Dominique is a Hatha Yoga Instructor, an Aikido Instructor (4th degree black belt, Aikikai) as well as a Meditation Instructor, inspired by non dual Buddhist and Hindu teachings.
She is running a Burnout Prevention program: an integrative approach using the body, introspective processes and meditation.
She is intermediary teaching Staff at the Bio-Medical Faculty of Lausanne (FBM-UNIL), and a seminar « Religion, spirituality and medicine » since 2008

More details at https://www.dominiquecassidy.com/more-about