Growing Through Grief

A few days ago, I met a young lady at the park. She had experienced the loss of her mother, and the words she used to describe how she felt inspired this episode. She shared her anguish, and among other things, she said she felt her heart shattered. These two words, shattered heart, are a combination none of us should have to use to describe how we feel, and still, sometimes, it is the truth.&nbsp...

Although all of us know deep down in our hearts that our parents will leave us at some point, it is still hard to deal with their loss. It is a tough call, even for grief and trauma specialists who have the tools to deal with grief more gracefully than someone unprepared.  Visiting us today is the amazing Professor Theresa Agostinelli, a Certified Mental Health and Wellness Coach, Speaker, Te...

For the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about grief during holidays and how hard it is to go through the celebrations season without our loved ones. Today, we touch on this topic again, but from a new perspective; we look at it from a spiritual point of view.  In this episode, continuing our series about grieving through holidays, we get access to a new tool to help us decide how we...

Whether we are ready or not for the next seasons of life, they will happen. As we mentioned in the previous episode, nature's cycle never stops; it works tirelessly to prepare for the next step, creating space, and embracing newness. Nature is a harsh teacher; if we look at it, what needs to happen for life to continue will happen. But, nature is also an endless source of inspiration. So, with a n...

As I enjoyed the beautiful, colorful spectacle of Autumn, my mind got caught on nature's perfect life cycle. Let's look at the trees, for instance. They let go of the leaves that will inevitably die during Winter; they release them on the floor so they can nurture their own roots. It is during Autumn that they start getting ready for Winter's dark and cold times. They create space and get ready fo...

The level of anxiety and anguish we see in the world today is undoubtedly amongst the higher in history. New issues that threaten the normal flow of the world come up daily, and things don't seem like they'll get better any sooner. Still, even though we can barely do something about them, we can brighten our days simply by choosing what we focus on. Our guest, Darla Nelson, brought this idea up; s...

The last couple of years were tough on all of us; in addition to the imposed restrictions, many of us had to deal with loss, pain, and heartbreaks. The forced isolation we've been sent into created a lot of time to be with ourselves, causing us to deal with the pain we pushed for years, even for decades. But there is a path we can choose to help us heal, the path of compassion. Regardless of where...

All of us have memories of all kinds that awake feelings and emotions; some might bring us joy and hope, some may cause pain and sadness. Still, memories will remain regardless of how we feel about them; therefore, we need to pay attention to the feelings and emotions they produce and how we handle them.  In this episode, we touch on a challenging subject: feelings and emotions. We explore th...

It doesn't matter how much we fight it; we have no control over what happens to or around us. What we can control, however, is our experience of it. We have the power to decide how we navigate what is happening around us; we can choose to grab the reins and take control.  Visiting us today is the inspiring Kayla Michael; she is a writer, a former military member, and a mother. Kayla's resilie...

Our emotions around what happened to us or the things we are going through are generated by thoughts. That is why when I hear someone asking themselves why they are always sad, what comes to my mind is the image of an open cage with a tiny bird in it that refuses to fly away. Changing how we feel is not easy, but it is totally up to us; it is a matter of looking for something greater, something hi...

If, during a moment of deep pain, one of our friends shows up and tells us not to worry, forget about what is making us suffer, and let time work its magic, what would we think of that friend? We would undoubtedly stop trusting that friend. However, on many occasions, that is the kind of friend we are to ourselves. We tend to push down the pain and forget about it, like if it didn't exist.  I...

Nature likes symmetry; if we look at a tree, we will see the same pattern of human veins in its branches. Life is cyclical; life is born and dies with methodic precision season after season. In his book, The Fourth Turning, W. Strauss, looking at history's cycles, points out a pattern of significant tragedies every four generations. To Dave Sanderson, one of the survivors of The Miracle of Hudson,...

We know that being in constant growth is the only way of reaching our highest potential. We learned the importance of moving through our grief, why grief matters, and the importance of flowing with the tide when we are undergoing lots of pain. We also learned that thinking that time heals everything is a mistake and that we won't heal unless we allow grief to flow through us. Today, we look at two...

Pain and suffering are things no one chooses to feel; therefore, it sounds logical to reject them. But, denying the pain caused by grief or any other painful experience is counterproductive to our growth and evolution. Surrendering to grief, accepting the pain, and letting it go through us are liberating and fundamental parts of our growth process. In this episode, we talk about growth, the advers...

Leaving grief unattended is comparable to leaving a baby crying for hours; the baby will eventually get tired and stop crying, but the consequences in the long term of that trauma could be devastating. A myth says that when we surrender to grief and let it go through us, we won't be able to come back from that, and the truth is actually the opposite. Coming back from grief is easier when we surren...

Almost every time we feel we are a mess or that we had a terrible day, we say that because of one thing that happened to us earlier, or it can even be for something that happened a long time ago. It is in our power to decide what kind of day we experience; the decision of what to focus on lies within ourselves - we can choose to have growth days instead of bad days.  In this episode, we talk...

In a recent conversation with a dear friend, she mentioned being troubled for not having time to grieve the loss of her husband. She is a prominent photographer and a branding and marketing expert who is constantly traveling, so I knew what she meant. Still, distracting ourselves with work is one of the ways to know we are not grieving correctly; that is why today, I decided to talk about why grie...

In the last few months, I've undergone an incredible amount of growth. I've learned that the death of a loved one or any other heartbreak we experience throws us into a growth period, whether we like it or not. We have two choices once we are there; we either flow with the tide or against it. The choice is ours, as well as the consequences. I've also learned that when resistance is present, everyt...

In grieving, as almost in every other thing in our lives, we have our unique way of going through it. For instance, when losing a parent, not every sibling will deal with it the same way, nor be sad or mourn for the same period. After losing her mother, with whom Georgette had a close relationship, yet different from the one her siblings had, she realized each one of them was grieving their own wa...

After two weeks of the devastating building collapse in Miami, I've decided to record this podcast to send a message to those waiting for news from their loved ones, those dealing with loss, and everyone dealing with the grief that is everywhere.  In this episode, we will discuss the importance of moving the grief and having a curious and friendly approach to it. We will dive deep into what w...

Losing the love of his life 11 days after their 42nd wedding anniversary left Jay without ground under him. And although it wasn't an unexpected death, they did a lot of healing together and lived intensely in love all those years; Jay was saved by the tools he acquired from dealing with the grief of traumatic experiences in his childhood and early adult life.  Jay Westbrook is a Clinical Dir...

Trauma and grief push us into growth. We must choose whether we will resist and suffer or let go and grow; the choice is not easy but is utterly up to us.  Today's episode was inspired by a conversation with a beautiful soul I met at the park that we will call Mary. She told me her story of grief and trauma; she described the suffering, the guilt, the remorse, and all the hurt and pain she wa...

The start of a new and beautiful day finds me appreciating the sun touching my face; I feel stronger and lighter than in the past six weeks. Something changed in me, and as I think about it, I can hear a voice in my head repeating a mantra: stop wasting time feeling bad, use that time to learn how to feel good.  In this episode, we will talk about our relationships and their influence on our...

Although our mind tends to block and forget traumatic experiences from our childhood, our body remembers; and most of the time, our body speaks louder than our mind.  When she was a child, Ellen found out harshly that certain things, like domestic abuse, were topics she wasn't supposed to talk about - and so she didn't. Her mind forgot about it, but her body kept remembering. She taught herse...

We are not taught to deal with grief when we are kids; we are told to stop crying, and we grow up thinking that our emotions make people uncomfortable. Grief can cause exhaustion; it can get us spiraling without control for days before realizing it; our minds spend too much time suffering, thinking about the past, and being anxious about the future. To overcome this, we must start taking care of o...