Perhaps you’ve lost a loved one. A dear friend. A parent or child. Even a beloved pet. Or perhaps you can’t bear to see your best friend’s growing pregnancy when you’ve been trying in vain for so long. Or the love of your life with whom you raised beautiful children tells you he or she wants a divorce after years of marriage.
Grief can occur when a job you had is now ended, whether from downsizing, quitting, firing, or retiring. It’s present in the composite of feelings when you experience “empty nester syndrome.” Anytime you transition from one cycle to another (whether this transition is of your choosing or happens suddenly), grief often is felt in response to the closing or ending.
Grief isn’t about the subject of the loss; rather it is the set of feelings which include emptiness, sorrow, disorientation, anger, or confusion that come in the wake of that loss. It tends to have a sense of crisis or trauma associated to it, freezing that one moment in time – be it the death, loss of job, loss of life or identity as you know it.
Too often, grief can feel as if it’s a closing in, maybe even feel suffocating; it can make you sensitive and often short-tempered about the “trite or unimportant” world concerns. You may even feel angry that life seemingly is moving on when you feel that your world is standing still. Or, it may motivate you to immerse yourself in your work or busyness, so that you don’t have to feel. The feelings of grief may make you feel more isolated, alone, and perhaps disconnected from life around you.
Whether your grief is new or embedded, harsh or simmering below the surface, finding a way to address it, embrace it, and move through it is key to your health and wholeness. Healing is the process of moving through and transforming the feelings in the context of love, rather than becoming numb and frozen or denying the cause of your grief.
Nancy supports you with loving, compassionate, safe space in which you can give yourself permission to feel the love, the sadness, the combination of feelings – and find your peace. She assists you when your heart may be “breaking open” to allow the love to flow, rather than “run-out”; allow your feelings to flow and, in the space of love, transform you again into life and living. She listens and guides you as you explore your beliefs about God, Life, Spirit, Purpose, if appropriate. She offers various modalities that support you as you find new purpose, peace, and life once again – redefining your life as you walk this new cycle, this new path. There is no timeline, no cookie-cutter formula. Your healing is uniquely part of your loving and who you are.
It is in the center of love and peace that grief can heal. When a cycle in life is closing and we love deeply, we will feel deeply – and as we move and heal through the grief, our hearts continue to experience the love that has been and always will be shared.
“Just as death is a component of the Life cycle, so too is grief a component of the Love cycle.”