Life Handover
What is Life Handover?
Life Handover is a monthly 1-hour meet-up group offering camaraderie, encouragement, and creative inspiration for our end-of-life planning.
To help us articulate our end-of-life wishes, Laura brings an unconventional artistic approach to the ‘thought work’ involved, having developed a light-hearted approach to contemplating deep questions. The structured workshops use different themes to explore our assumptions about death rituals and death admin via creative writing, drawing activities, mindfulness, and discussion prompts.
The concept was inspired by personal experiences of confronting death admin and ensuing conversations with like-minded people about a need for friendly encouragement to ‘do the work’ on our end-of-life plans. Life Handover is a friendly group, recognising the resistance to admin and the deep topic of death but meeting it with curiosity and play.
What to expect from a Life Handover session
Each session has a theme that Laura has been musing on, sometimes prompted by suggestions put forward by the group. We start with a short warm-up using a variety of creative techniques. After the warm-up whets our appetite, we explore the session’s theme using creative prompts to expand new perspectives, clarify ideas, or galvanise intentions. We’ll take some time to share and discuss our discoveries, reflecting on the theme.
Do you need creative skills?
The creative techniques used in Life Handover are open to anyone, there is absolutely no need to have any ‘creative skill’. Each activity is guided by Laura and questions as we go are always welcomed. You may bring paper and a pen but you’re encouraged to use colours/sketchbooks if you feel inspired!
Outcomes of Life Handover
Life Handover allows us to gently explore complex topics with an open mind, curiosity, compassion, and at times, humour. By allowing us to approach nuanced issues in this way, participants may find themselves refreshed with new perspectives, greater clarity, and a determination to tackle end-of-life planning tasks.
What Life Handover is not
We often feel a sense of connection and community in our sessions, and although the topics can bring up sensitive discussions, we are not a therapy or grief support group.
The admin in question is our end-of-life admin and does not deal with processing probate – the intention is to encourage us to get our affairs in order, often to limit the ‘sadmin’ others in our lives will have to do.
The sessions are aimed at helping us pick through the emotional nuance of a subject, giving a greater understanding of how we might want to articulate our end-of-life wishes – Life Handover is not for legal advice.
Who Life Handover is for
If you’d like to creatively explore assumptions about death rituals and death admin in a friendly structured group session, Life Handover is for you! Crossing between the practical and philosophical, the prompts often have us reflecting on personal and cultural insights.