In a recent interview video on Youtube, I asked my dear friend Dorinda Berry how she is moving through her grief from her daughter’s death one year ago. Based in New Zealand, Dorinda is a well-being mentor and coach who specializes in holistic energy balancing, energy healing and spiritual counseling.
Even though both Dorinda and I help others to connect with their inner selves, we are not immune to the pain of grief and loss. We, too, are human and we have feelings and emotions.
That’s why Dorinda and I decided to collaborate on our upcoming online workshop called “Let Love Shine Through Grief” in July 10 – 11, 2021. In this online weekend workshop, we want to share tools and practices that helped us personally to move through our grief. Though grieving is a very unique and personal process for each person, we believe that when we come together in a group setting, the power of healing is magnified.
In today’s blog, Dorinda and I want to share our personal stories on how we have / are moving through grief in our own journey.
1. What is one of your grieving experiences?
My daughter transitioned one year ago. She was 18 at the time on 29th of June 2021 and very much the light in my life.
2. How did you move through the grief?
Just getting though each day was a Journey. I surrendered to my emotions and acknowledged my true feelings. I used every tool in my human experience to draw upon. Somedays were full of emotion and tears and somedays full of guilt, anger, regret, unable to accept her not being here. As painful as this was from the beginning to now.
Self care and self love – water, sleep, exercise, yoga, nature walks and runs, gym, swimming, to tire my body and work through some of the emotions, eating well, journaling, having a healing team, meditation, lots of showers, FORGIVENESS ,LOVE AND COMPASSION.
3. What have you gained through this experience?
Even though every day I still carry the tragic day Indigo passed, I also have grown and learnt so much. I have a new relationship with Indigo as my Spirit Guide. I understand that we are surrounded by unseen LOVE and help. We just have to ask!
I have gained a deeper understanding of negative awareness and positive awareness which was not me one year ago. I would only look for the positive which still is my choice. Yet now, I hold sadness and joy equally and understand the profound energies they both bring. I understand that our time on Earth is for the Experience and not about “ getting it right”. Our eternal Soul evolves within the agreements we have with other souls to hold us in this experience. When we develop our relationship to our HEART and ask our questions from there, we find the answers we are seeking. I am now able to LET GO AND LET IT BE.
4. What is your no. 1 advice for people who are grieving to start healing their hearts?
Keep receiving Love and Life. Drink water and self care. Even if that means just going through the motions. Say yes to people helping you but most important to you helping YOU. For very tear replace that water with an intake of water. Eat healthy, even though you may not want to. Your body needs your help and support to move through this..
- Self-care and self-love
– Drink a lot of water and herbal tea: Every time you feel overwhelmed or in pain, drink some water.
– Exercise: walking, yoga, running, gym, weights, stretching, swimming
– Breathing exercises: slow and conscious exercises. Inhale, and exhale longer, releasing relaxation to the vagus nerve
– Showers and baths
– Sleep: even if that means taking relaxants
– Be gentle and kind to yourself at all times
2. Forgiveness: Practise forgiveness. Start by choosing a person or situation, and choose one day of practising forgiveness per week for two weeks. Recite the ho’oponopono mantra.
3 . Healing Team: Gather a healing team which will support you through the stages and you WILL KNOW you are growing. Your healing team can assist the different aspects of your grief, such as massage, spiritual counselling, and other healing modalities like reiki, access bars, energy healing, and colour healing.
4 . Meditation: walking meditations, visual meditations, healing heart meditations
5. Journaling: What does that really mean? It’s putting the stuff going around in your mind, constantly going around and around. Sometimes it’s the same theme but different scenarios are playing out. Place it from your mind onto paper, phone, or computer. See it written out and you may notice a lightness and a sense of clarity that it brings as part of your mind gets a rest from carrying it.
5. Why is it helpful for people who are/have been grieving to join our workshop?
There is no right or wrong way to navigate grief, it’s a personal journey.
This workshop will help you PROCESS grief. You will learn processes to navigate the waves of grief and each time you practice the processes you will create a stronger connection to you as a human being and a Soul.
- To gain insight of a greater part of yourself and let your HEART lead this 3d experience and cultivate a familiar relationship in the 5D with your SOUL
- To release the stuck ness in grief within a group, and to know you are not alone. You are safe to release and feel the like-minded Energy and support to move forward.
- To breakthrough into some steps forward in union with your Heart
- To accept the Sadness and the Joy
1. What is one of your grieving experiences?
I want to share something more recent that is not as traumatic as losing someone to death but I still carried a sense of sadness. My routine was changing as my son started to go to kindergarten. I felt that my life was good and my routine worked out well before, and I had resistance to changing that even though I knew I had to.
2. How did you move through the grief?
By first acknowledging and giving space for my feelings and emotions to come. It was easy to go through the motions of the day, the things we had to do. But the sadness was turning into resentment and anger and I was lashing out to my loved ones. That’s when I realized I really needed to take a pause and let the emotions arise. It felt silly at first because yes, it was a change, a transition I was going through but it didn’t seem like a huge thing.
When I was doing my morning meditation, I decided to do a finger labyrinth walk. Just when I started to place my hands on the finger labyrinth, I was already sobbing. Tears just poured out and I was crying and crying as I did the finger labyrinth walk. I allowed myself cry without justifying or rationalizing anything. It was an incredible release and I wrote down my reflections in my journal afterwards. I felt much lighter after the practice.
3. What have you gained through this experience?
To know that we cannot compare grief with other people. Sometimes what happened to other people seemed much more traumatic and major, and it felt like we shouldn’t feel sad or grief for something on a much smaller scale. Like what I experienced recently – the extent of grief would have been nothing comparing to what Dorinda was experiencing and feeling.
But grief is grief. Sadness is sadness. It is important to own all of our emotions and stop comparing with others. Acknowledge where you are at in your own journey and respect your emotions.
4. What is your no. 1 advice for people who are grieving to start healing their hearts?
Take some quiet and private time and space for yourself to grieve and mourn. There are always so many things to do in life to keep us occupied. It is easy to sweep the emotions under the carpet, so-to-speak, in order to stay strong and keep on moving on with life. But we get stuck when we don’t acknowledge and process our emotions. Do what you need to do, in your own private space, for yourself, and not for anyone else. Take care of your own needs and emotions, you deserve it.
5. Why is it helpful for people who are/have been grieving to join our workshop?
Even though we all have our own ways to grieve, I believe that the group aspect of the workshop is going to be a valuable experience. To be able to share your true feelings and emotions with others who understand what you are going through, to be held and supported in a safe and sacred space, and to allow whatever emotions want to come up to arise.
Dorinda and I are also sharing tools that we feel are best suited to this workshop, and have worked for ourselves personally on our own healing journey. These are the tools that you can use and practice over and over again after the workshop even when you have moved through the grief. All these tools we share in this workshop will help us let go of any stuck emotions and to be more deeply connected with our heart center and Soul.
Are you looking to move through grief from loss, heartbreak, a sense of separation or change?
In this weekend workshop, we will be taking the time and space to honor and acknowledge our loss, to release our grief one tiny step at a time, and to see the silver lining of what new gifts and blessings Life brings to us.
LIVE Online Weekend Workshop: Let Love Shine Through Grief
Dates: July 10 & 11, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 9am – 12pm Thailand time / 2 – 5pm New Zealand Time (convert to your time zone here)
Facilitators:Dorinda Berry, well-being mentor and coach with Tania Ho, Museflower Retreat & Spa Founder
Platform: Zoom
Cost: USD 150 per person (Early Bird offer: Save $50 and Pay only $100 if you register by June 22, 2021)
How to Register: Click our “Learn More Here” button on the right to register and make your payment via our Thinkific platform.
This Online Workshop is For You If You Want to:
- Heal from grief, loss, heartbreak, or a sense of separation
- Move through a place of emotional darkness or “stuck-ness”
- Recognize gifts and blessings in your life
- Get grounded back in your physical existence as a spiritual being
- Open your heart again to give and receive love
- Feel supported in a safe group space to share your voice
