Loading...

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain ~ Khalil Gibran

Grief comes in many shapes and sizes but has a common source of loss.

Someone close to you dies. You lose a job or change careers and leave behind a way of life and co-workers. You go through a divorce and no longer connect with your family or community as a result. Your children leave home and you suddenly become an ‘empty nester’. All these experiences can take away your sense of who you are and irrevocably and tragically change your sense of identity and the role you play in your life.

 

As well, emotional trauma can steal your sense of safety and security. You might lose your home to disaster or through foreclosure and have nowhere to go. Degenerative illness can take away your independence and feeling of being a purposeful contributor to life. Financial difficulties or other failures can get in the way of your dreams and block your ability to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. You can feel untethered, stressed and that you are a failure in your life.

 

The personal loss of self confidence and self esteem that co-exists with losses can send you spiraling away from joy and spinning directly into the arms of grief that can suffocate you.

 

 

 

 

The mourner receives compassion and is entitled to anger, sadness, numbness, disorientation, and nonlinear healing… unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mourning Your Losses – Healing Your Grief

How do you rediscover a new sense of who you are when divorce or illness suddenly descends into your life? How do you rebuild inner strength and self-love after trauma that has left you feeling vulnerable and unworthy? How do you learn to trust in life again after you have been blindsided by betrayal or loss? How do you find hope again when you have failed?

 

It all comes down to healing the grief that comes with loss:

• Breathe – Let your breath reach and release the emotion and the pain
• Nurture yourself: feed your body, exercise, meditate, walk in the sun, get a massage, journal, welcome quiet times.
• Let go of control – The reasons for your losses may not be obvious. Release the need to ‘figure it out’. Just breathe and trust.
• Give yourself time – Don’t force the process. Move through the reminders and events with love and awareness.
• Be patient with you – Love yourself even when you are moving through your pain and respect your need to be alone or self-reflective
• Be joyful when you feel it – It is okay to take pleasure in life when it bubbles up within you
• Everything changes with time and love. Repeat the mantra “All Shall Be Well.”

 

Healing occurs in its natural and most intelligent time. Nature shows us that what dies is reborn. Out of darkness comes light. Breathe, be patient, love and nurture yourself as you move through the challenges of life – the light and your joy will return. It is a Universal Law.

 

For more information about Breathwork – contact John Stamoulos   john@johnstamoulos.com