Hello, welcome back to my blog! Lately in Health we’ve been going through a unit called DDA, which is basically Death, Dying, Afterlife. We’ve been looking into how different cultures and religions view death, plus all the different ideas people have about what happens after we die.
It’s actually been pretty interesting because we didn’t just talk about the spiritual side, we also looked at the actually science behind it. We learned about what happens to someone’s body right before they pass away, like how their heart rate slows down and their breathing changes, and then what happens to the body.
For this unit as well, I’m going to cover the theory that your brain can stay active for around seven minutes after your heart stops beating, Some people think it might be like your brain playing a quick recap or movie of your life before it fully shuts off.
My Three Work Evidence
Dealing with loss/grief site –
Stage of Grief – Bargaining
Showing Respect and Hauora
During this unit, I demonstrated respect towards cultural beliefs different from my own by keeping an open mind and actively listening without judging or making jokes. Because death and the afterlife are personal and spiritual topics, people in my class had a lot of different views based on their religions or what they were told to believe in. instead of thinking that a belief was “weird” just because it was different from mine, I focused on trying to understand. I made sure to use respectful language during group discussions, gave my classmates my attention, and avoided interrupting.
Showing respect like this definitely enhances other people’s Hauora.
Taha Hinengaro: It makes people feel safe and valuable instead of anxious or judged. They feel way more confident to speak up when they know no one is going to laugh at them
Taha Whānau: It builds trust and helps us get along better. When everyone feels included, it creates a much better vibe in the classroom and makes us closer as a group.
Taha Wairua: Beliefs about the afterlife are a massive part of who people are. Respecting their beliefs validates their identity and makes them feel secure in their faith and culture.
Taha Tinana: When you feel judged, your body gets stressed, tense, or uncomfortable. A respectful classroom keeps the environment relaxed and stress free so every can actually focus.
Why is it important and how can you support it?
It is so important to look after all areas of your Hauora when you are going through change, loss or grief because everything is connected. Te Whare Tapa Whā compares our well-being to four walls. If one wall gets damaged or knocked down by a hard time, the whole house becomes unstable and can collapse. Grief isn’t just about feeling sad, it messes with your whole life, your body, and your friendships.
Tana Tinana: Grief completely drained you energy. When you are going through a big change or loss, you might struggle to sleep, get random headaches or lose your appetite.
- How to support it: You don’t have to do intense workouts, but just going for a walk outside to get some fresh air helps. Also, make sure you eat proper meals and try to get a goodnight’s sleep.
Taha Hinengaro: This wall takes a massive hit. Your emotions can be all over the place, one minute you feel totally numb. the next you’re angry, or just feel completely overwhelmed.
- How to support it: Don’t bottle things up or pretend you’re fine when you aren’t. Writing down how you feel in a journal, listening to music that matches your vibe, or just letting yourself cry when you need to.
Taha Whānau: When you’re grieving, it’s really easy to shut everyone out, lock yourself in your room, and push your friends away because you just don’t have the energy to talk to anybody.
- How to support it: Even if you don’t want to talk about the sad stuff, just hanging out with your friends, watching movie with family, or letting someone you trust know that you’re struggling makes a huge difference.
Taha Wairua: Loss can make you feel completely lost or empty inside. You might start questioning your beliefs, feeling like things aren’t fair, or losing your sense of purpose and direction.
- How to support it: Doing things that make you feel grounded or connected to who you are. This could be spending time in nature, doing something cultural, or finding a quiet way to remember and honour whatever or whoever you lost.
My Topic for this unit.
For my investigation topic, I picked the seven minute brain theory, which was honestly the best pick in my opinion.
Basically, this theory is all about what actually happens inside our head right at the very end. Most people think that once your heart stops beating and you stop breathing, you just die straight away and that’s it, like flicking a light switch off. But scientists have found out that it doesn’t really work like that at all, Instead, your brain can actually stay alive and keep firing off signals for up to seven minutes after your heart has completely stopped beating.
During those seven minutes, there’s this massive burst of brain activity, especially in the areas that control things like memory, emotion, and dreaming. Because those specific parts of the brain are lighting up a lot of researches think you might experience a crazy, dream-like state where you see your whole life flash before your eyes, It;s almost like your mind has a movie reel of all your favourite memories, key minutes, and feelings before it fully shuts down for good.
Interesting Pieces of Information.
1. An Accidental Brain Scan: One of the coolest things i read about was this event from 2022. Doctors in Canada were running a brain scan on an 87 year old patient to check on his health, but while the machine was running, his heart suddenly stopped. Because the scanner was turned on, it accidentally recorded a human brain dying for the first time.
The Scan showed that right after his heart stopped, his brain had a huge surge of waves. The waves are the exact brain signals we use when we’re dreaming, remembering stuff, or meditating. This proved that even when your heart stops, your brain doesn’t just instantly stop. It keeps signing off thoughts just like when you’re having a dream.
My source: The Accidental Brain Scan
2. Why 7 Minutes?
I also looked into why everyone keeps saying seven minutes. Basically, when your heart stops beating, that’s called a clinical death, but your brain cells can actually survive for about 3 minutes to 7 minutes without oxygen before it completely shuts off. In those last few minutes, the brain dumps out all its leftover energy in one big final burst, which is why people think you get that seven minute movie reel of your life.
How does this link to Hauora?
Looking into this theory actually connects to different sides of our Hauora.
- Taha Wairua: In a positive way, thinking that your brain plays a nice replay of your favorite memories brings a lot of peace. It makes dying sound way less scary and a little bit more peaceful.
- Taha Whānau: This can also help families who are grieving. Knowing that a relative might have been having a calm, dream-like experience in their final moments gives comfort to the family.
- Taha Hinengaro: On the negative side, reading hepa about death can give you short term anxiety and make you feel a bit creeped out if you overthink it.
Short Term and Long Term impacts.
Short term:
- Negative: Right after you first read about how the brain shuts down, it can be pretty creepy. You might end up overthinking it when you’re trying to sleep, feeling a bit freaked out or getting a wave of anxiety just imagining what it actually feels like in those last few minutes.
- Positive: But at the same time, learning about it instantly makes you realise how cool the human body is. It’s peaceful thinking that even at the very end, your brain might be trying to keep you calm.
Long Term:
- Positive: Over time, actually knowing the science behind it can change how you view death completely. Instead of being super terrified of dying and thinking it’s just a scary, dark end, knowing you might get a peaceful montage of your memoirs helps you accept it. It makes death seem way more like a normal, natural part of life which gives you a lot of long term peace.