Grief Support

For many of us, we have experienced untapped levels of grief since March 2020. Whether it was because a loved one transitioned, a lay off from a job, changes with school for your children, shifting to being inside and at home more than ever or doing some deep inner work that brought up buried feelings around our dreams or values...all of it is valid and none of it needs validation from others for you to have permission to grieve. I invite you to give my podcast, Sojourn of Light, a listen particularly the episodes, "Grief + Change as Creative Catalysts" and "Grief + Hope as Social Activism" to keep unpacking the subject far beyond what I have included here. Grief is something that I have experienced many times in my life whether it was going away to college, the loss of my biological father suddenly, pets transitioning, relationship breakups or even grief about decisions I felt I HAD to make to honor myself and my truest alignment. From my perspective, grief is evidence that we have loved and that we are alive and that we can still feel. I would be more worried if you DIDN'T grieve because it's a very human thing to do. Since it's not going anywhere anytime soon and the work we're up to on this journey

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requires you to be willing and able to change, evolve and let go, grief WILL come up. Just as we talked about in the "Feel. Reveal. Heal" and "Letting Go" sections earlier on, you have every right to take care of yourself. In fact, you are your greatest responsibility so I encourage you to adopt some of nature's tools below to support your grief. Due to space, I can only share a few, but truly I could fill a book on grief support alone. For more, book a "Getting through Grief" session with me on the SOLEIL website plus checkout the resource list for the book for more on the stages of grief. I deeply believe that no one can move through grief alone. In my life, I've called on therapists, coaches, mentors, herbalists, movement, bodywork and so much more to move my feelings through my body so this is another area where your support map may be useful. The more we normalize convos around grief, the more we can accept that feeling is human and support each other to move through it with our hearts open.

HERBS* | Useful for teas, spiritual baths, oils, salves:

CRYSTALS | Useful to carry on the body, meditate with, keep in the home or work with in other ways:

*Always check with a medical professional beforehand to check for allergies or reactions before consuming.

Lavender Chamomile Mullein

Rose Quartz (unconditional love + peace) Amethyst (calms the nervous system + anxiety) Apache Tear (absorbs + releases grief)