The word grief has come to be understood solely as a reaction to a death, but grief is the normal and natural emotional reaction to a loss or change of any kind. Grief can come in so many ways. A failed marriage, the loss of a job, an unplanned life changing event, the loss of a culture or lifestyle, a major move to a new community, city or country, a failed business, the loss of a pet or the loss of a family member, child or partner. Throughout our lives we suffer many losses along the way that we never properly grieve. The accumulation of these losses, that have never been properly acknowledged and dealt with, can create constant turmoil in our lives and relationships. The first event in this eye opening series, will have us identifying and understanding just how complicated grief is and how far reaching it’s tentacles are. |
A little online research will tell us that there are multiple theories of the emotions that define how we react to all of the positives and negatives of life. We are going to focus on the Plutchik theory that there just like colors in a rainbow, there are 8 basic emotions and all other emotions are a combination of these: ANGER - SADNESS - FEAR - JOY - INTEREST - SURPRISE - DISGUST - SHAME Through these eight basic emotions, there is potential for grief to hand us literally hundreds of different possible emotions and it is important that we identify and properly grieve each and every one in order to effectively move forward. This eye opening event will produce the "aha" moments that will help you to understand the many emotions that you have never properly dealt with and may be what is getting in the way of feeling content in life. |
A loss of any kind can shake the foundation of our existence and impact our minds and bodies in so many ways. During a period of grief, we can become preoccupied with thoughts, memories, and images of what we have lost and the life changes that we are being presented with. It can be difficult to accept both the loss and the life changes that come with it. In order to effectively deal with grief, we must first recognize and acknowledge the many parts of our lives that have been impacted so that we can address all of the pain. The scars of grief will be with us forever, but with time they will heal enough to allow us to start living again. If we never acknowledge the scars and understand the impact of each end every one, the wounds will never completely heal. |
It's important that we go through the process of identifying our emotional grief triggers and implementing a plan for healing them. The triggers themselves will be different for everyone, but the ways in which we deal with those triggers will have many similarities. If we can better understand why we trigger, and how to deal with triggers effectively, we can put ourselves into the position of using those triggers as a source of empowerment and growth. We have emotional triggers for a reason. They are there to guide us away from what we don't want and towards what we do want. By making adjustments as to how we view our triggers, we get the opportunity to view them less as something to fear, and more as something to be thankful for. |
We can all benefit from having a plan, and the path through the grieving process requires a well thought out and comprehensive plan that will guide us in the right direction. The plan will include a journey of many roads, but all of the roads will lead us back to the path we need to be on. We are going to explore what it means to let go of the past, we will need to trust again and we will all have to better understand and explore the power of forgiveness, for others, for ourselves and for many of us, the outside forces that had a hand in delivering the pain that we have been exposed to. Once the path is established, it will be up to you to decide how fast you want to walk. Some people will be able to move through the process quite quickly and others will take their time. |
As we go through life, there is one thing we can count on; Change is inevitable. It can be positive, like business growth or a pay raise, or it can be negative, like a job loss, or it can be life changing, like the loss of a family member or loved one. Regardless of the loss, once we go through the grieving process, we reach the point where we are ready to embrace our new normal and start the process of once again living an authentic life. The idea is to shift away from living our lives in a constant state of grief, appropriately acknowledge all that has happened, and start moving forward. If you are grieving and you are ready to start moving forward, then this series is for you! |