Radio Show Host A Light for the Soul that Weeps

Our thoughts give birth to feelings which present us with opportunities to make choices. This is our creative process. When we experience a loss or grief, at some point we make a choice to move through the experience; to heal. Without a conscious choice to heal, we create an unconscious alternative which allows the thoughts and feelings generated by our loss or grief to become an identifier.

 

Rather than experiencing loss or grief, we begin to believe the loss or grief is who we are. When we become mindful of our thoughts, we understand how changing our thoughts, changes our feelings and changes our lives. We move from asking ‘why’ something happened to making choices of ‘what’ we will do now. We become aware of our experience and actively participate in the healing process. Through our conscious choices, we empower ourselves to embrace the inevitable changes that will transpire as a result of the loss or grief we are experiencing and we begin the journey to healing.

The practice of journaling is immensely supportive in healing from loss or grief.  Its unique connection of our body, mind and spirit requires very little effort and offers tremendous returns. 

 

Often the consideration of journaling evokes resistance.  We may believe writing is ‘not our thing’ or the time commitment is too burdensome.  Or whenever we begin to write our mind becomes blank and we become paralyzed.  Yet, if our commitment is to heal, the evidence supports expressive writing as an effective practice in our journey and we discover the time commitment is nominal.

 

We will discuss the benefits of expressive writing and how we can develop a daily practice that is supportive of our healing journey and works within the boundaries of our lifestyle.  We will understand how a practice of journaling extends far beyond our initial intent to heal and is a powerful tool as we expand and express our true self.  I am looking forward to exploring the practice of journaling with you.  

We are multifaceted beings with physical, mental and spiritual aspects.  Conversely, experiencing loss or grief has a multi-dimensional impact on us.  We are affected emotionally, cognitively, physically, socially, and spiritually.  Without an understanding of the grief process, we can easily begin to create identification with the grief.  Rather than recognizing we are experiencing grief we begin to believe it is who we are.

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Knowledge is power and as we move forward in our healing journey understanding the grief process and how it impacts us offers tremendous benefits; empowering us to stay the course.  It helps us keep our focus on our inward journey rather than on the multifaceted affect that is natural to the grieving process.  I look forward to discussing the dimensions of loss and grief and generating an understanding that will assist you as you move forward in your healing journey. 

When we experience a loss or grief our world becomes a distorted maze; much akin to a trip through a hall of mirrors at the local carnival.  A shock reverberates through our system by the loss and grief and our perceptions of our world change.  The type of loss we experience will affect the degree of distortion.  Nevertheless, whatever the degree we will notice that our sense of self is impacted; and this will directly impact our care of self.

 

It is at this time that caring for self becomes most critical while conversely it becomes most challenging.  The stress of the trauma and the multidimensional aspects of grief affecting us exert a toll on our behavior.  For example our eating and sleep patterns can be affected; withdrawal from friends and family can exacerbate our feelings of loss and create feelings of loneliness. 

We will explore the impact of loss and grief on self-care and more importantly identify how we can support our healing journey and nurture our self in the process.

Brokenhearted; the kind that leaves us without hope and so completely, utterly fragmented that we truly feel we cannot be repaired.  We have felt it before in our lives.  Although this time we believe that we have never experienced this depth of despair, this degree of pain.  This is the one that takes us to our knees; the one that releases a wail so forceful that the windows shake in response.  We may shed a river of tears or become suspended in time to the point we are detached from both our internal and external environment.  This is grief.

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We experienced a loss and our world collapsed.  We look around at the ruins of the cataclysmic event and we feel the desolation.  Yet, no one else sees what we see and we realize it is all coming from within us.  Everyone continues on with their life and the world around us seems oblivious to the event that altered our existence.  But, what about us; how do we continue on?  We will explore how to move forward and heal.

Perhaps it is a bit challenging to think of experiencing loss and grief as an ‘opportunity’.  Yet, upon further reflection we discover our experience presents an opportunity to expand and evolve in ways we could never before imagine.  The reason is quite simple; loss and grief slices to the core of our being.  It chisels through thoughts and feelings thereby revealing beliefs and perceptions in a whole new light.  It breaks through barriers that have evolved over time and clears a path for a new awareness.  It creates an opportunity.

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An opportunity is defined as a ‘possible choice’ and we have learned that we are responsible for our thoughts, feelings and choices.  Our experience has given us and opportunity to pause and review, refine and restructure our lives in a way that will benefit who we are and what we want to create. 

Please join me as we explore how we can use this opportunity for our highest good.  

Without a doubt, loss and grief changes us.  We become weary of the frivolous; the noise that has clamored for attention from our loss and our various roles and responsibilities.  We become overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings loss and grief generate and we risk becoming immobilized by their effects.  Yet, we can rise above the thoughts and feelings.  We can generate new thoughts and new feelings that help us; that support us on our healing path.  And we accomplish this through the art of appreciation.

 

Abraham-Hicks identify appreciation as the purest word in our language.  I tend to view appreciation as the most authentic form of gratitude.  When we appreciate something or someone we can feel our energy rising. We can feel the vibration of appreciation as it nurtures us, heals us and brings a sense of well-being and peace.  Please join me as we explore the Art of Appreciation and continue our path of healing.

The Marine Corps League’s Marines Helping Marines Program is a fully tax deductible 501(c)3 charity established to provide extensive support at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center-Bethesda for the wounded Marines and Navy FMF Corpsmen returning from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. The program expanded nationwide to include the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego, the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and the Wounded Warrior Regiments at Camp LeJeune, NC and Camp Pendleton, CA.

 

The program’s website MARINESHELPINGMARINES.ORG provides more program information, a means for making donations, and corporate donor info. Unlike many charities MHM does not spend money to raise funds ensuring over 98 percent of all donations go to supporting the wounded Marines and Corpsmen. MHM is a 100 percent volunteer organization where no one is compensated for any expense. Please join as Tony Begenwald shares about this amazing program and how we can make a difference.

Recovery from others, substance abuse, relapses, the unknown, or ourselves is an ongoing process. However, you have a choice on how you will live your life. Will you be a spectator or participant?

 

The spectator watches life go by without taking an active role in decision making.  Things simply happen to them instead of them deciding what’s going to happen. Unable to effectively manage day to day life situations, the spectator is forced to continue to live in the problem.

 

The participant is mentally prepared for daily trials and tribulations. They look towards each new day’s events with excitement. Participants make things happen for themselves.  They are actively involved with life. They are choosing their destiny and relish it daily!

 

Our success is based on restoring people to their maximum capacity and placing value in their life by designing a personalized program based on their dreams, plans and agenda to achieve life’s rewards. Join us and learn how to be a participant again!

Denial, fear, loneliness, guilt or rejection, and anger are part of the loss and grief experience when a break-up or divorce alters a relationship.  Yet these are merely five of the Rebuilding Blocks upon which a powerful program exists and where the top, and final building block, is freedom.

 

Norm Gibson, leader of the Rebuilding Seminars in Boulder, CO, will share with us about this compelling program that was established decades ago through the research of Dr. Bruce Fisher and which has evolved into a powerful program of hope and healing; and tools to move forward whole and confident.

 

Participants work with like-minded, positive people in similar situations who validate their experience while challenging them to grow.  Rebuilding's group-setting is a great way to gain new perspectives and identify self-defeating behavior.  It is a way for members to put and end to old, repeating patterns and let go of non-nurturing relationships so that they can build conscious, healthier ones.   

Hospice is about what I call valley-walking.  We walk through valleys, deep, dark places of loss and grief, with other people. We want to be there, not just for our patients’ families, but for anyone who needs us. At Hospice, we offer support groups and individual counseling and support. We’re here to help.  Gary Roe, Hospice Brazos Valley.

 

Bereavement is a form of loss and grief that is associated with the death of a loved one.  Dependent on the relationship, bereavement can be intense, overwhelming; where one is left with feelings of utter and complete desolation.  The path to healing is best supported by those who understand the depth of the loss and support the healing process.  Regardless of the relationship or the circumstances, Hospice is a valuable source for those experiencing bereavement.

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Please join me and my guest Gary Roe as we explore the journey through bereavement; where we learn how to navigate the valley of grief and the dark places of loss; where we cultivate hope. 

"Survivors of domestic violence are no different than the rest of us.  If the perpetrator had punched my client in the face or assaulted her on date 1, there probably wouldn't have been a date 2.  There is often a slow, insidious grooming process at work."  EJ Smith

 

A snapshot of domestic violence.  Imagine you are on a merry go round.  You got on to have some fun, but that was long ago.  The days melted into weeks, months, years.  Sometimes the merry go round slows a bit, but it won’t last.  Soon it will go fast again.  The world passing by has been long forgotten.  The things you use to do; the friends you use to see.  It doesn’t really matter anymore.  Hopelessness is the only feeling that is present.  That and fear for you have become a shell of a person.  There was a time when you feared death.  Now you pray for it.  You cannot imagine living another moment in the violence.

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Join EJ and me as we discuss the path to wholeness and freedom; to moving forward to an abundant life.

Psychology has largely concerned itself with how people become injured: mental illness, organic brain dysfunctions, and minor problems of every kind.  Recently a new branch of this science has developed studying topics like happiness, creativity, and peak performance.

 

For many of us, the truths and techniques we have been working with in our individual lives -- affirmation, visualization, moving our emotional set-points, cultivating enthusiasm, learning to trust our intuition -- have become the subject of great scientific interest.  It will come as little surprise that science is untangling the mysteries of the human brain and how the techniques spiritual teachers have shared for countless generations arise from proven scientific principles.  

 

Join us for this exciting conversation, where David Casti and I will discuss some of the most current science relating to common spiritual practices.