If you’re part of this tribe then you’ve known the pain of losing a cherished loved one. You’ve experienced the grief that follows. And, if you’ve done the difficult inner grief work, good for you. But many others haven’t. Take one minute today and share hope.
Depression and anxiety will most likely be the result for those who haven’t done thire inner grief work. They don’t know their need, or how, or choose not to.
They distract themselves with busyness. Choosing to push their minds forward into a new future.
How do I know? Let me illustrate by sharing the following story…
Her eyes eased open as she awoke to her sons’ laughter and the aroma of bacon drifting up the stairs. She tried rolling over to stretch out stiff limbs. But her body felt wooden, unresponsive. Her mind felt enveloped in fog, thick as mud. Her inner world felt dark, still, stuck. Just like the wintery morning outside.
What’s happening to me? Why won’t my body move?
Depression. Roaring out of nowhere.
Years later, this forty-four-year-old woman would recognize the depression for what it was – grief. She was mired in grief but didn’t know it. Grief that had gone unrecognized, unrelated to, and unreleased.
Grief had grabbed her attention as depression six months after the intentional suicidal death of her youngest brother.
She’d navigated Mark’s sudden death in her usual style – with competence. Efficiently organizing the funeral. Effectively comforting her parents and Mark’s young children.
Intellectually she knew she’d never grow old with Mark. His incipient mental illness had grown to full-blown desolation, strangling the life from him. In many ways, his death was a relief. She’d cried along with everyone else those first few days.
And then she immersed herself in activity. Unrecognized, unresolved, unreleased grief festering inside.
Finally, her body said, “Enough!”
A curtain of depression fell, forcing her to slow down. Four arrested months of forced rest. Time to seek solace in spiritual texts and wandering among tall trees in the morning mist.
Finally, on Mother’s Day, she awoke light-minded and her heart full of joy once again. The curtain of depression had lifted. She was back.
I, Georgena, am that woman.
As you can see, I know how unresolved grief takes a toll on your body, mind, and soul.
And I discovered a process for going from pain to peace. Techniques for recognizing, relating to, and releasing grief.
Now I companion people through this process. I show grieving individuals and the professionals who support them that:
Grief lives in the body.
You can learn how to navigate dark emotions of grief by letting your body speak to you. Be guided by your body’s messages. Recognize, relate to, and release your grief. Wake up feeling light-minded with your heart full of joy.
Share this message of hope.
Please, share this with someone who needs this message of hope. Someone who’s mired in depression or anxiety following grief.
When you share, add a personal note saying something like this:
Dear _________, I am NOT trying to fix you because you are not broken, even though you don’t feel like yourself right now. I found this message interesting and thought you might too.
Love all around, above, below, to the left and to the right, before you and behind you,
Georgena
P.S. - Watch this public television episode:
https://www.speakinggrief.org/?mc_cid=76d581a3bb&mc_eid=be1db75f81
