Dealing with Grief and Fears

Everyone’s grief journey is their personal experience. There is no playbook you can buy or use to advise. Others’ tales help to verify our sanity. Others’ journeys help us grow our capacity for compassion for our compatriots in grief and for ourselves…

The Christmas displays go up, holiday music fills the air. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Except at your house. Because when you’re grieving, the holidays can hurt. The first year I was widowed, no one got anything from me…

We all know that challenges are a part of life. Yet we are never prepared for them when they appear at our door. “Why are you here, things are going well, leave me alone.” We all get those knocks – the knocks of life…

If this December you are feeling anything but merry and bright, it’s perfectly okay. There is no requirement to be “in the spirit,” or peaceful or joyful. And by all means, if you don’t feel like it, don’t deck the halls or hang the stockings with care…

Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Let’s not just get through the difficulties of our challenges and our adversities, let’s grow through them. Otherwise, what a waste to have them! The old saying, “When life gives you lemons…

As the holiday season approaches, I often think about those who are Suddenly Single – and have recently experienced life-altering events such as divorce, widowhood, or separation. Especially during the holidays, overwhelming feelings…

As a life coach for widows, I often talk with people who are using gratitude against themselves. Self-inflicted, forced gratitude is how many people attempt to kick themselves into a better emotional state. It isn’t effective…

The island of Okinawa in Japan is one of the longevity hot-spots of the world. That means it’s been identified as one of the five Blue Zones – areas where people live the longest and are the healthiest. Several beautiful concepts…

It’s Halloween season! I know because a walk down the streets of our quiet neighbourhood means bumping into a few skeletons if not disembodied heads. While this is the time for us to think about the light side of death, our western attitude…

My husband died in my arms right before Valentine’s Day 16 years ago. I soon found a quote by Alan Watts that became my mantra for many months afterward as I moved through the initial phases of widowhood: “The only way to make sense out of change…