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Free Download: 5 Useful insights for grief
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Grief
is going to hit all of us at some point in our lives, death of a loved one, divorce, health issues , estrangements from family and friends, death of a pet, toxic relationships, abuse, downsized or fired, or moving to a new city or country.
Yes, these are all examples of where grief can show up.
Grief spares no one, it’s part of the experience of being human, and yet grief has been miss- cast as somehow a clinical condition and while in avoidant hands it can destroy, in perceptive ones it can transform.
While no one can erase your grief, you can learn to move with it, speak with it, sit with it and integrate it into your life because you’re not done living.
What grief is commonly believed to look like:
Sorrow, tears, lethargy, denial, pain, numbness.
What grief can also look like:
Anxiousness, depressive, nervousness, insecure, regretful, lonely, suffering, resentment, scared, rage, confusion, irritable, frustrated, moodiness, anger, guilt overwhelmed, isolated, shameful, powerless, neglected, ashamed, remorseful, restless, uptight, fidgety, cautious.
Grief work is mental health work.
Often you have no idea that grief is the underlying emotion driving your moods, because you think you’ve moved on. Another day, another month, another year may have ticked off the calendar, but those are just days gone by.
Grief has a function to do and it has no timeline, steps, or stages, to make it go faster or easier.
Working with grief, is work, its actually called Grief Work!
It’s exactly Grief Work, that is the focus in both our online and On the Farm programs.
While grief can’t be fixed, with the right knowledge, resources, skills and tools, grief can deepen your experiences in life, and allow you to live it through a different lens.
Hi I'm Gail
And I’m the heroin of my own story.
As a book enthusiast, and lover of words I delight in nothing more than immersing myself in the story arch of characters both fictional and real. Stories for me are more than just a monthly book club commitment; they’re a mirror into how lives are lived well, dysfunctional or in chaos.
It’s ironic that I am such a prolific reader now, as it was my progressive worsening reading skills in grade 2 that had my 7 year old mind confused when on the last day of school I ripped open my report card and read the word REPEAT.
I had no idea in what context this word was being used, so it was a confusing walk home trying to figure out why my teacher wrote such a cryptic message.
Yeah you figured it out, back in the day schools actually made students REPEAT a grade. For me that meant the following September my sorry ass was warming the same chair as the previous June.
It meant I had to still line up at the primary end of the school while my friends moved to the junior doors located at the other end of the building. It also meant that by the first recess on that first day back the following September everyone knew I was still a lowly primary grade 2, and no longer cool to hang out with.
I was ditched by kids I had been friends with since kindergarten.
That elementary school spanned grades from kindergarten to grade 8, so it was another SIX years of having those once friends remind me that I failed grade 2, that I was dumb, and unworthy of friendship, right up to when they graduated grade 8. (There was a kid in high school who liked to bring that failure up.)
That cloud hung around a long time.
So that little story, is actually about grief, even though at the time no one in my family or school recognized it as grief, or even an experience worthy of a trip to the ice cream parlour to cheer me up!
Circumstances of grief, often only get recognized in bereavement, the death of a loved one, but as my little story shows, losing friends, self-respect, and confidence are all losses that are invisible to others in our world.
Those types of losses can impact your life in so many unrecognized ways.
I’ve lived through the death of my father at a young age, as well the death and progressively dehumanizing disease of Alzheimer’s with my mother. So I understand both sides of the grief coin.
Our online programs and on the farm experiences were created to provide the recognition, (we see you!) support and direction needed for your own grief work.
We don’t want your grief to go unrecognized, even to yourself.
This is me:
Academically,
I’m a certified Mediator, and Conflict Resolution trainer, Adult Education and Experiential teaching facilitator as well certified in Death, Dying, and Bereavement, a trained hospice and end of life volunteer as well as a Reiki Master.
Add a degree in Physical Education and Sports Administration, to round out my time sitting in a classroom.
In the horse world,
I am certified in 3 different Equine Guided Learning modalities; The Neuro-Equine Model created by Neuro Surgeon Dr. Allan, the FEEL approach to Equine Learning and Therapy as well as the Cartier Farms award-winning research base Equine Assisted Learning Building Block Program.
(Horses are part of our “On the Farm grief programs.)
My starring Role though?
Momma to 3 adoptive kids, in a transracial family. (This may be listed third in my bio, but it’s my most important and fulfilling role in life!)
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