“Healing Grief… Moment by Moment” is a podcast created and produced by HOPE Connection. In each short episode Dr. Jo Christner or another HOPE Connection therapist offers a meditative exploration of a different aspect of grief and the healing process. As you listen, we wish you love, light and comfort.
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Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Change is hard. For anybody. Especially someone who has been presented with life’s biggest change, the death of their significant other. As time passes, the griever is left to endure life’s challenges… with paperwork, figuring out day-to-day tasks, taking on more responsibilities and no longer having a partner to share them with. Changing a light bulb, paying taxes, doing laundry or other shared tasks, now all fall on you. Change is hard, so now what?
There is no right or wrong way to deal with the loss of a loved one. The grieving process is not only unique for each individual — it’s just plain tough. Primarily, you have to deal with the death of your loved one. But secondarily you have to cope with change. That doesn’t happen overnight. Your journey through grief takes time, the…
Time can seem to pass in the blink of an eye. Here it is, minute by minute, day by day… almost 2025! The problem is that this year, it’s very, very different because your loved one is no longer here to celebrate with you. The holidays feel lonely without them. It’s all changed. We’re told that the holidays are about cheer and connection, right? Oh boy, when you’re grieving and sad, you may not feel very cheerful or connected. You may just feel like hiding until the holidays are over. Just let them be over! Can you do that? Can you just hide away? You may struggle with that idea because friends and family are reaching out and inviting you to join them. They don’t want you to be alone… although wanting to be alone might be exactly how you feel.
It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If this is true, then perhaps words can be the companion that sits by that window. Words allow feelings to express the sorrow of the grieving heart.
I cannot fix your pain
I cannot solve your problem
I can’t prevent the sorrow you’re feeling
Or even guarantee I’ll make you smile
The holidays are too often a painful reminder of your changed life and the death of your loved one. They may force you to realize how much your life has changed. Holidays certainly may not feel festive — they may feel more like a spotlight painfully illuminating your sense of emptiness, aloneness and broken heart. How can you move from hiding or…
As you might know, anxiety can be inextricably connected to grief and is considered a normal part of the grieving process. For some, it can become a constant companion in the grieving process. What is anxiety? Basically, it’s feeling a sense of worry, nervousness, unease and excessive apprehension. Honestly, it can just feel plain terrifying and awful, as though you’re going crazy…
Take a moment and imagine your life as a tapestry.
What you see depends upon which side you’re looking at.
Sometimes, you only see what looks like the back side of the fabric, with broken threads and uneven and missed stitches, the difficult painful events.
If you take a breath, give it time to unfold and hold onto faith/hope/love, you may be able to imagine the top side of the tapestry and begin to believe that your life will become upright and okay again, maybe even beautiful in its own unique, changed way. It won’t always feel upside down the way the loss of loved one can throw it.
October, and Halloween — oh what memories! Wearing costumes with a mask that you wanted to fool a friend with. In those days that was a fun kind of mask.
Now, as a grieving adult, you discover that masks take on a different purpose. Such as the metaphorical mask to avoid the sadness of grief with family and friends, when you don’t want them to know how you really feel.
After your husband, wife or partner dies, you embark on a journey to a foreign land. Exploring this territory is the process of grieving. To support you on your journey, HOPE group therapists offer suggestions to help you grieve, including ideas for healing, keeping the memory of your loved one alive and honoring them. One way to begin healing is by simply talking or writing to your loved one. Telling stories about them and reliving cherished events are wonderful ways to keep them alive in your heart. Honoring them can involve creating rituals such as lighting a candle for them at a holiday dinner or playing their favorite music at family get-togethers.