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Proactive Steps Help You to be Happy Again

Posted on September 27, 2013 - by Harriet Hodgson

Grief is exhausting. You may be tired of feeling helpless and hopeless, yet don’t know what to do. Hope eluded me after my daughter, father-in-law, brother, and former son-in-law died within nine months. Hope seemed to have disappeared, but I found it again in caring for my twin grandkids and taking proactive steps. Here are my suggestions for feeling happy again. Choose happiness. Again and again, I told myself, “I’m worthy of happiness.” Saying this sentence helped me to believe it. I also believed in myself and the coping skills I had honed over the years. You are also worthy of happiness […]

When the Mirror Breaks

Posted on September 25, 2013 - by Daisy Massey

“Siblings are the only relatives, and perhaps the only people you’ll ever know, who are with you through the entire arc of your life…Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form.” – writer Jeffrey Kluger observed to Salon in 2011, the year his book “The Sibling Effect” was published. My brother Andy was more than a sibling, he was my twin. We weren’t really twins, we were just close in age and physically favored each other including, despite the 2.5 year age difference, […]

Condolence Letter on the Death of a Pet

Posted on September 24, 2013 - by Janet Gallin

I have watched people go through loss of a loved pet and can see how hard it is to say goodbye to those four-legged members of our families. Having seen friends through this heartbreak of having had to say goodbye to the very family member who loved constantly and without question, kept their children safe, guarded them from danger and brought joy into the home, I realized how important it is to send a love letter of condolence to families who are suffering this particular grief. Rosie’s death was a wrenching change, an agonizing absence and called for a memorial […]

Gaining Wisdom on the Journey of Healing

Posted on September 18, 2013 - by Michael Nunley

There is a great deal to learn on the journey of healing. I would have preferred to have skipped the reason for some of the lessons, but as we have no choice about being on this winding road, it’s a good idea to know where we are, where we’re going, and what to expect along the way. I believe that those of us traveling with the unwanted hitchhiker named “Grief” need to know how our journey will be different, and how to make the best of it. I’d like to share several kinds of wisdom I have found important to […]

Gaining Wisdom: Keep Trusting in the Process

Posted on September 16, 2013 - by Donna Miesbach

Recovering from a loss is a tough road and the only way to get through it is one step at a time. Even when it seems like we aren’t making progress, actually we are. If you look back to the time of your loss, you’ll see how you have made progress. We just don’t see it from day to day. Months from now when you look back to this time, you’ll see how much farther you’ve come. It takes a lot of deep breaths to get from here to there, but with each and every breath, you are just that […]

Study: More Than Half Would Be ‘Overjoyed’ to See Deceased Loved One

Posted on September 13, 2013 - by Piero Calvi-Parisetti

According to a survey by the Forever Family Foundation, 52% of the interviewees would be “overjoyed” and would “try to interact” if they were to see a deceased loved one while they were awake. It would be easy to dismiss this as a just a nice thought – the understandable desire on the part of a bereaved person to renew contact with somebody who’s passed away. In fact, things are not as simple. First of all, research tells us that some sort of interaction with the deceased is a very frequent phenomenon. According to the University of Chicago, for instance, […]

Bereaved Mother Conducting Research on Child-Loss, Seeking Participants

Posted on September 12, 2013 - by admin

Judy Hefren is a doctoral candidate at Florida State University, College of Social Work, whose only son died in 2007 at the age of 17. She is conducting research in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how and to what extent the significance that parents place on the belongings of their child who has died impacts the grief process. Her hope is that this research may in some way help parents make these difficult decisions about belongings following the death of a child. If you are comfortable in doing so, Judy would appreciate it if you would consider completing […]

Writing Your Book about Grief: Helpful Tips for Beginning Writers

Posted on September 12, 2013 - by Harriet Hodgson

I’ve been a freelance writer for 36+ years, focusing on health and wellness books. My latest book focuses on the steps I took to recover from multiple losses. Four family members died in 2007 and, thanks to grief work and introspection, I created a new life. So many people asked me how I managed to do this that I listed my recovery steps on paper. These steps became a talk and the talk became a book. My current publisher was interested in this grief resource, and I sent the manuscript to the executive director. The company has a collaborative agreement […]

How Do I Go On After Losing a Loved One?

Posted on September 10, 2013 - by Nicky C Jones

The other day, I received this question from one of my followers. She recently lost her husband and asked me, “How do I go on after losing a loved one?” When I read this question, I got a little bit tearful as I remember this feeling oh so well. This is a soul layer question and one I think will resonate with many of you. The quick answer that I usually give when people ask me how I went on is, “I did it because I had to. I didn’t have a choice.” The truth is, there is not one perfect answer; […]

Affirming Our Grief Experiences

Posted on September 9, 2013 - by David Roberts

A Balancing Act I was employed as a counselor for 27 years in the chemical dependency field, and several of my treatment approaches were based on a cognitive model of therapy. When any therapist deals with cognition as it relates to chemical dependency, they are usually addressing automatic negative thoughts that have contributed to continued relapse and otherwise destructive behavior. One of the suggested cognitive approaches to counteract negative thinking is the use of affirmations. Affirmations are positive self– statements that are consciously introduced into a person’s stream of consciousness. The belief is that if an individual uses affirmations consistently, that […]