A lot has been written about “getting through the holidays.” But, for someone who is grieving, words of hope and comfort can never be said often enough. This week, on the eve of both Christmas and Hanukkah, the visual cues announcing the holidays are almost overwhelming. Lights, decorations are everywhere, triggering feelings of loss and loneliness. Now, words of encouragement are needed…
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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
'Healing' Tagged Posts
Three little words. A simple phrase that comes out of people’s mouths as easily and unconsciously as an exhale. How are you?
When said to a griever, it takes their breath away for a moment as they are hit with the realization again. The realization of the death of their loved one just when they were attempting to stay away from the feelings for a while. So there is a hesitation to calculate how they feel… or to figure out what to say to a phrase that has no easy answer right now. A mixture of emotions and thoughts flood their mind and body like an ocean wave.
When your loved one dies, it may literally feel like it takes your breath away. You begin an odyssey that you don’t how know to navigate.
Shock and numbness prepare you for the journey as you plummet into a swirling dense fog of despair, an unfamiliar reality. The life you shared is no more. This is a forever loss and so begins… the eclipse into darkness.
There is so much pain and sorrow in our world and lives. Finding some thread of hope and inspiration often seems unreachable. It’s so important that we reach out to each other and create that thread… see each other through. From the beginning of time, hurting souls would sit around fires, tell stories and create connection and hope. We’ve strayed from those rituals and too often feel alone. We need those stories, those parables and metaphors to hold onto, a touchstone to hope.
So, we offer you a “touchstone” to hold onto… the story of The King’s Diamond, an old Jewish folk story. This version is included in the Introduction of Living Through Mourning: Finding Comfort and Hope When a Loved One Has Died, by Harriet Sarnoff Schiff. May it bring you a sense of connection to all of us and your deceased loved one.
Loss! We have all experienced losing a loved one but losing a parent is a unique loss and one that is often discounted. Anyone who has had a parent die knows that feeling of profound sadness, the feeling of being overwhelmed, the thoughts of, “Oh No! What now?”
There is a prevailing attitude in our cultural messages that the death of a parent is a natural course of events and we need to “just get over it!”
After a loved one dies, people often have an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. They feel lost, and the process of despairing and searching begins. Not only has our loved one died, we’ve lost our sense of connection. “S/He was my life.” It’s difficult to describe the depth of this kind of loneliness, feeling as though no one could possibly understand or fathom…
Stella Davies became interested in healing from an early age, earning a Post-Graduate Expressive Arts Therapy (Drama) diploma at 22. In 2005 she discovered Reiki, trained as a teacher in 2011 and then as a Usui/Holy Fire Reiki Master in 2014. Contact Stella at Info@StellaDavies.com. Losing a loved one is one of the most traumatic life events we can experience. The loss reverberates through our being on…
Maryann Ridini Spencer is the author of Lady in the Window, a new novel Capturing Aloha Magic, Hope, Healing & the Infinite Mother-Daughter Bond. Please visit her website at MaryannRidiniSpencer.com. In October, 2014 I learned the devastating news that my mother was suffering from a massive brain tumor. Doctors gave her six to eight months to live. As it turned out, we celebrated…
This article focuses on the emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects of grief and compassion. A second article will focus on how we can compassionately and lovingly take care of our physical body. Few events in life are as painful as the death of a spouse. The feeling of abandonment and loss is one of the most agonizing feelings we experience. The grief…
Laurie Burrows Grad’s husband, Peter, died one month ago. She writes, “The hardest thing about grief is to see life going on. People all around me continue to do their daily routines. The stock market keeps functioning; meteorologists predict the weather; time marches on. I cannot understand how I have lost Peter and the clocks have not stopped.”She also writes about other…