Heart-Broken Open: Grief as a Sacred Path to Renewal and Rebirth
Endings, Begins and Transitions In Your Life
One of the most important things you will ever do in your life is to clear, heal, or transform loss and grief, old wounds, memories and trauma that lie dormant in your mind and body.
There are all kinds of sudden endings that cause us to be in transition and change, such as the death of a loved one—family, friend, colleague or beloved animal.
We can be traumatized by divorce, separation, war, betrayal, assault and or abuse.
We can find ourselves abruptly impacted by a personal loss of our home, job, environmental disaster or crisis in another city or country.
In our world today, we find ourselves confronting head-on life’s most difficult moments.
Frequently, there is lack of closure or resolution around a wound or loss that we have carried with us for years. Often, the memory or beliefs we bear keep us sad, empty, disconnected and not fully living our precious life.
I find that in our western culture we do not allow ourselves to fully grieve or to experience loss. We are told to “get over it,” “move on,” or “it has been long enough.”
We bury our pain and sorrow and we suffer privately.
Five years ago I experienced a traumatic car accident that precipitated the loss of function in my hands and arms, loss of my home, and car. During that same week my beloved cat passed away.
I was in a daze; frozen in space and time. I was overwhelmed with sadness, grief and loss. It took some time to feel that I had found my way back home to my true self.
Here are the four things I did that supported and helped me heal my mind, body and spirit:
- Spiritual Path: Find a spiritual path that resonates with you. Reach out and ask for support. Ask for prayer from Unity or Spiritual Living Center or any other church.
- Grief Guides: Find someone or several friends you can speak with daily or weekly. Go to a grief and loss support group in your city. Do not grieve by yourself.
- Self-care: Take care of yourself, rest, find a good massage therapist, energy healer, body-worker, and meditate daily.
- Grief and Loss Resource: Find a therapist if you need it and attend a good grief and loss retreat where you have a community of like-minded souls who support your healing.
I hope you have found this article helpful. Let me know.
Please check out the Grief and Loss Retreat that Melody LaBaron and I are presenting in the Fall of 2017. This is an opportunity to experience one of the most powerful ways I know to transform your stuck emotions, sadness, anger, shame and loss.
Recommend Book: The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals OF Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller