From grief to gratitude...

From grief to gratitude....

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, grief energy resides in our lungs. This energy stagnates and slows the lung energy resulting in us feeling sad, weighing us down and causing us to constantly sigh.

Grief is heavy and slow and transformative, just like the weight we experience on our chest.

This heaviness honors the vulnerability within you.

It honors the love that was shared between you and another.

It honors the new roles the Universe has decided you are prepared to handle on your own now.

It is sadness.

It is unexpressed feelings

It is unexamined experiences.

Believe it or not, this heaviness leads us to gratitude...a gratitude for our life and the people who make it wonderful because we know, in a moment, it could all change.

There is no better teacher of how to live in the grateful present moment than grief.

Grief is a journey.

A journey back to ourselves and a journey to ourselves because we shift and change and evolve through our grief process into the person we were always meant to be, one present moment at a time.

In fact, grief and gratitude reside in the same location in our bodies.

As we heal, and as we begin to see the work that grief is doing within our lives, sparks of gratitude begin to arise and a greater plan is often understood.

However, that original spark was always there and always will be.

There is a spark within us that can comfort us and hold us during our grief.

And when we’re ready, we can fan this spark to ignite a fire within us that will trail-blaze us into our next chapter. It’s important to sit with this flame when it is time and equally important to ignite it to support us when we feel ready.

This Divine Spark within you can hold you through your darkness and offer a glimmer of light for you until you are ready to fan it.

Life is always blessing you, even through grief.

This week is my mom's 13th Angel Birthday.

If you would have told me 13 years ago that I would be grateful for all that has happened, I would not have believed you. I was broken.

I was sad. I didn't understand why this all had to happen.

I was not ready to fan that Divine spark.

I wanted to remain in that chapter and hold onto her energy and all the memories we made together. One day, I felt brave enough to take a deep breath of courage, fan that flame and begin again.

That exhale of courage led me down a series of Divinely guided events that helped me understand that it all actually had to happen.

As a result of Mom's passing, I wrote Angel Birthdays to offer a children's book option for my family and other families.

I began speaking and hosting grief workshops to spread the Angel Birthdays' healing message.

One day, my message began to shift and began to share how grief shows up in every aspect of our lives, not just when people die. Every life chapter change elicits grief and because of this shift I became a Grief Minister.

Grief Ministry lead me to a reiki practice.

A reiki practice lead me to a hypnotherapy practice

A hypnotherapy practice lead me to opening the Love.Heal.Thrive. center.

The Love.Heal.Thrive. center provided all the clinical research I needed to complete my book, The Anxiety Connection.

Now I am expanding beyond the walls of the center to bring my message to an even broader audience. And I think to myself how proud my mom would be and how we both know this journey was meant to be experienced with her as the angel on my shoulder, guiding me and cheering me on, much as she always did.

We are both grateful for this road we've traveled together and grateful I took that first deep breath and fanned the flame of Divine guidance.

Who are you grieving right now? Or perhaps you are grieving an experience? Many are grieving the pandemic and the time and lives that have been affected. Can you focus on the Divine spark within you that is calling to you? Are you ready to fan that spark or is it time to just sit with it and be?

All things, including our grief, happen in perfect Divine order and always bless us.

Join me this week for our weekly meditation, A Spark of Healing: A grief healing meditation, as we healing the grief within us and bask in the Divine spark that resides within us.

Our love for each other knows no boundaries and will continue to live forever. It is this spark that connects us and allows us to honor our loved ones through our lives.

Much love,

Erin