Hello, my friend!
I've been thinking a lot lately about what really matters at the end of the day. Not in a morbid way, but in a clarifying one.
Over the years in my practice, I've had patients share their near-death experiences with me. These conversations have stuck with me because they all point to the same thing: love. Not complicated, conditional love, but something much simpler and more profound.
If love is what people experience at the threshold between life and death, shouldn't we be paying more attention to it right now–in how we treat ourselves and the people around us?
This week, I want to share some of those reflections with you, along with practical ways to cultivate more love in your daily life, starting with yourself.
👇 In today's email:
- This week's inspiration: Love is the Last Stop
- Latest blog post: Ways to Shower Yourself with Love
- What I'm reading: After, written by Dr. Bruce Greyson
Love is the Last Stop
When I was four years old, my brother told me he was God. I wasn't entirely sure who the Lord was, but I confidently declared that I was the Lord too, knowing somehow that he was up there as well. Even then, there was something mystical stirring—an intergenerational spiritual curiosity that I didn't have words for yet.
Not long after, I established a relationship with Ariel Fiengold, my imaginary friend who lived under the Volvo in our driveway. (I was a quirky kid, what can I say?)
While my spiritual potential was always there, bubbling beneath the surface, I got some of the most profound information about life from an unexpected source in my adulthood: people who had near-death experiences.
What They Told Me
Over the years in my practice, I've heard remarkable stories. Patients have described experiencing unconditional love and light—pure bliss. They talk about a flurry of beautiful, indescribable colors and not wanting to leave. One woman told me about an enormous archangel and her grandmother commanding her to return to the land of the living.
What strikes me most is this: we spend the majority of our lives terrified of dying, doing everything we can to avoid it. Yet the people I've spoken with often describe the experience of dying—or coming close to it—as one of the most beautiful, profound experiences of their entire lives.
The Invitation
So what do these near-death experiences tell us about how to live now?
If these stories have a pointed emphasis on anything, it's love. Not the complicated, conditional love we often practice, but something deeper, more expansive.
This brings me to some questions I've been sitting with—and I invite you to sit with them too:
Can we embrace love wholeheartedly? Can our hearts sing with the joy of simply being together with the people we care about?
Are there people we need to love from a very far distance, so we're not seared again and again? Are there relationships we need to leave behind for our own wellbeing?
Can different intensities and textures of love surround us and the ones we cherish? Can we live from that place of love—if love truly is the last stop?
These aren't easy questions. They require honesty, boundaries, and sometimes difficult choices. But they're worth asking, because how we love–and who we love—shapes everything.
Ways to Shower Yourself with Love
Speaking of love, let's talk about the most important relationship you'll ever have—the one with yourself.
Today's blog post is all about cultivating a kind, compassionate relationship with yourself. Because here's the truth: you can't pour from an empty cup, and you can't love others fully if you're running on fumes and self-criticism.
In this post, I share practical, doable ways to practice self-love that go beyond bubble baths and face masks (though those are nice too!). We're talking about:
Building a Foundation of Self-Acceptance: How to quiet that harsh inner critic and speak to yourself the way you'd speak to a dear friend.
Daily Rituals That Actually Matter: Simple practices that nourish your nervous system and reconnect you with your body.
The Permission to Rest: Why rest isn't selfish—it's revolutionary, especially for women who've spent decades caring for everyone else first.
Boundaries as Love: How saying "no" to what drains you is actually an act of self-respect and empowerment.
This isn't about perfection or adding more to your to-do list. It's about gentle, sustainable shifts that help you feel more at home in your own skin. Because when you treat yourself with tenderness and respect, everything else begins to shift too.
Remember, having a kind relationship with yourself is the foundation for all other love in your life. Yes, you can cultivate this—one small, compassionate choice at a time.
After, written by Dr. Bruce Greyson
In keeping with this week's theme of near-death experiences, I recently started reading After by Dr. Bruce Greyson, who is the preeminent scholar of near-death experiences.
What I love about Dr. Greyson's work is that he doesn't come from a "woo-woo" background—he was a strict materialist, a scientist through and through, until his experiences with patients guided him to question everything he thought he knew. He's a Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia and has been studying near-death experiences for more than 45 years.
His research is rigorous, compassionate, and deeply fascinating. He's collected thousands of accounts from people who've had these experiences, and what emerges is a surprisingly consistent pattern: the experience of unconditional love, a sense of profound peace, and often a life review that emphasizes how we treated others.
What strikes me most about his work is how it aligns with everything I've learned in my practice about the mind-body connection, the power of consciousness, and the importance of living with intention and love.
If you're curious about what happens at the threshold between life and death—and what that might teach us about how to live more fully—this book is a beautiful, thought-provoking place to start.
Learn more about Dr. Greyson's work here →
I'm cheering for you,
Dr. Catherine