Open to Hope Articles

Articles Home

Healing Relationships After Death

Posted on February 21, 2020 - by Lo Anne Mayer

Excepted from Celestial Conversations: Healing Relationships After Death (Cape House Books), and may be purchased through Amazon. One year after Mother’s death, I was cleaning out a bookcase when one of my journals from the 1970’s fell on the floor. I skimmed it, remembering how I’d combined meditation and journaling to tap into divine guidance. The technique had helped me to unravel our six-year-old son’s academic difficulties. Could this formula of prayer, meditation and journaling help me heal the grief I feel over the loss of my mother? I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. The next morning I sat […]

No More ‘At Least…’

Posted on February 20, 2020 - by Greg Adams

At least he didn’t have to suffer. At least you have other children. At least you still have your health. At least she’s in a better place. At least you can have other children. At least you had so many years together. At least you had the chance to say good-bye. (Take a deep breath—there’s more) At least you know where he is. At least it was so early in the pregnancy. At least you still have your friends and family. At least you have your faith. At least you’ve been through this before and know how it goes. At […]

Bend without Breaking

Posted on February 15, 2020 - by Allen Klein

This is an excerpt from Embracing Life After Loss: A Gentle Guide for Growing Through Grief by Allen Klein, available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Life-After-Loss-Growing/dp/1642500062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=330F5I7PHDK96&keywords=embracing+life+after+loss+klein&qid=1579904828&sprefix=Embracing+lif%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don’t try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. —Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist While […]

Ho’oponopono and Other Important Healing Phrases

Posted on February 13, 2020 - by Karen Noe

This is an excerpt from Your Life After Their Death: A Medium’s Guide to Healing After a Loss available on Amazon at: My clients often express their regrets about the relationships they had with their deceased loved ones. Some just wish they would have told their loved ones how much they cared, but now it is too late; others feel they should have told their them how grateful they were for having them in their lives; some are sorry and feel remorse for their actions; yet others are very angry and are finding it […]

Quiet on the Grief Journey

Posted on February 12, 2020 - by Harriet Hodgson

This is an excerpt from Happy Again! Your New and Meaningful Life After Loss, available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Again-Harriet-Hodgson-ebook/dp/B00PMDEYE8 Understanding yourself helps you recover from loss. You may call this self-awareness or “emotional intelligence,” a term coined by Dr. Daniel Goleman. In his book, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ, Goleman explains the basics of the term. He thinks self-awareness involves recognizing strengths and weaknesses “and seeing yourself in a positive but realistic light.” Being self-aware helps you avoid pitfalls. Similarly, a lack of self-awareness can lead you straight to them. Since I was a small child I […]

The Death of Gianna Bryant Can Trigger Sibling Loss

Posted on February 11, 2020 - by Gloria Horsley

On this episode of Open to Hope Conversations podcast, we respond to a listener’s question. The listener said that they had a sister who was killed in an accident several years ago. But, the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna has really set her back. She is having trouble sleeping and concentrating on her studies. It’s natural to be impacted by the loss of celebrities. But, it’s even worse when we have lost someone ourselves like a sibling because it triggers those emotions that all come flooding back again. You expect your sibling to be there so you […]

Your Unique Grief

Posted on February 9, 2020 - by Allen Klein

This is an excerpt from Embracing Life After Loss: A Gentle Guide for Growing Through Grief by Allen Klein, available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Life-After-Loss-Growing/dp/1642500062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=330F5I7PHDK96&keywords=embracing+life+after+loss+klein&qid=1579904828&sprefix=Embracing+lif%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, Eyes— I wonder if It weighs like Mine— Or has an Easier size. —Emily Dickinson, American poet Sometimes the biggest obstacle in getting through a loss is not the loss itself, but our notion of how we should react to it. We feel that we should be sad; we should feel remorse; we should be upset. In truth, there is no right or wrong way to deal […]

They Come to Your Dreams

Posted on February 7, 2020 - by Karen Noe

This is an excerpt from Your Life After Their Death: A Medium’s Guide to Healing After a Loss, by Karen Noe, which is available on Amazon.com. One of the easiest ways for your deceased loved ones to reach you is in your dreams. All you need to do is to ask them to come, and they will be there for you. Make sure to also request that they wake you up after they come; if you don’t wake up after the dream, you won’t be able to remember it. The important thing to do then is to just be patient […]

365 Days of Healing

Posted on February 7, 2020 - by Lora Mercado

This excerpt is from 365 Days of Healing: A Daily Workbook to Overcome the Pain of Grief, available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1508902291 This book was created to help you work through your grief of losing someone you love. Although the title suggests that you write in in daily, you may take as much time as you need to complete it. Some days you may complete more than one entry, and other days you may not feel up to writing. This is okay. Don’t feel guilty if you are having a day where you cannot form the words to put onto the paper. […]

Triumphing over Tragedy: No Superheroes

Posted on February 7, 2020 - by Allen Klein

This is an excerpt from Embracing Life After Loss: A Gentle Guide for Growing Through Grief by Allen Klein, available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Life-After-Loss-Growing/dp/1642500062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=330F5I7PHDK96&keywords=embracing+life+after+loss+klein&qid=1579904828&sprefix=Embracing+lif%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. —John Vance Cheney, American poet Life can be filled with joy. It can also be filled with immense sadness. Our ups and downs during life’s journey depend on a number of factors. These include such things as our circumstances, our reactions to our circumstances, and yes, even luck. Often we can’t control our circumstances, or our luck, but we can control our reactions to what […]