Buffalo seasons Awareness in life
Navigating Grief: A Journey of Healing and Growth
Grief is a deeply personal and transformative process. It asks us to confront painful realities, face the emotional turmoil of loss, and redefine our sense of self. When a loved one passes, particularly under traumatic circumstances such as suicide or an unanticipated and sudden death, the path to healing can feel overwhelmingly challenging. For many, the journey through grief follows a complex, nonlinear path where emotions ebb and flow, and the heart often revisits painful memories at unexpected times.
Grief’s Five: The Essential Pillars of Healing.
Grief is a deeply personal and often overwhelming journey. It can consume your energy, alter your perception of the world, and make even the most basic self-care practices feel like monumental tasks. While there is no roadmap to healing, there are five foundational elements—what I call Grief’s Five—that can help support you during this difficult time: sleep, nutrition, hydration, exercise, and socialization. These pillars serve as gentle guides to sustaining your well-being while navigating loss.
Anticipatory Grief & The 3 E’s of Self-Compassion
Caregiving is an heroic act that needs more recognition and support. From spouses to adult children to pet parents and veterinarians to nurses and physicians, the level of care provided to one living with a serious health condition takes an existential toll.
In this blog series, I explore the life of caregivers and offer tips on how to walk the noble road while maintaining one’s emotional, cognitive, and physiological health. This week, we look at anticipatory grief and its impact on the mind, body, and spirit. We then review the 3 E’s of Self-Compassion: Expression, Engagement, and Empowerment and their protective factors for those experiencing anticipatory grief.
Mother’s Day, Not Always A Happy Holiday
In the United States, the origin of Mother’s Day dates to the 19th century. In the early 1900s, Anna Jarvis embarked upon a public campaign to establish an official holiday for mothers after the death of her mother. Herself childless, Anna lobbied for the special day as a way to recognize women’s contributions to society. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.
By the 1920s, the holiday had been so commercialized, that Anna denounced the holiday, petitioning the federal government to remove the holiday from the official calendar. And so, after thousands of years of honoring mothers and motherhood, the post-modern commercialization of Mother’s Day has been foisted on the public via television, social media, radio, advertisements, sales promotions … the list is endless. For some, the month-long lead-up to the holiday followed by endless social media posts capturing just the right smiles and hugs on the special day, can be unsettling.