Marla Grant, a grief recovery specialist, speaks on her intentional journey into grief:

Looking back over the years, I can see that by comparison to many, my life has been uncommon. I have outlived three of my five children. That’s a rare and harsh experience. Yet the real surprise is that I am at a loss to call this a tragedy or to assign myself the appellation “bereaved parent.”

I am not the victim of a harsh, capricious world in which divine blessings are bestowed on some, while trial, cruelty, and loss are given to others. I am the architect of my life and the arbiter between an ego world that wants to see me as a victim and a higher self that influences me every day with its call to awakening from this empty illusion we call life in bodies. It’s not possible to die; and I have seen proof.

But I didn’t always believe these truths. I was not always making an intentional journey into grief.

Luckily, I inherited my mother’s pragmatic approach to life and her ever-present optimism. So, when life’s harsh lessons have appeared, I seek wisdom and spiritual growth. Then I get on with the business of living.

— Marla Grant, Tampa, FL, Advanced Grief Recovery Method® Specialist
Founder, Inspired Grief Recovery with Marla
inspiredgriefrecovery.com

The above was excerpted from  Amazon.com: Loss, Survive, Thrive: Bereaved Parents Share Their Stories of Healing and Hope eBook

To read another excerpt from the book, see https://www.opentohope.com/intentional-journey-into-grief/

 

 

Meryl Beck

Meryl Hershey Beck, MA, M.Ed., spent her early professional life as a high school and community college teacher. In 1990 she became a licensed counselor specializing in 12-Step Recovery and eating disorders and soon designed and implemented a successful outpatient Food Abuse Treatment week. After she discovered energy techniques, Meryl began writing about and teaching energy modalities to mental health practitioners nationwide beginning in 1998. An authority in this field, she has presented at workshops and conferences internationally. Her first book, STOP EATING YOUR HEART OUT: The 21-Day Program to Free Yourself from Emotional Eating, tells her story and presents many tools to skyrocket personal growth and alleviate emotional eating. As a professional counselor, Meryl spent decades helping others integrate loss. But it wasn’t until her 35-year-old son ended his life in 2011 that she fully understood deep grief. Meryl is the creator and developer of SourceTapping®, a meridian therapy technique that is like needle-less acupuncture, which helps to ease both physical and emotional pain. She uses this tool for herself, with bereaved clients, and now includes it in all her workshops. Although Meryl endured the hell of excruciating grief, she chose to face it rather than stuff it. And, she also made a conscious decision to recover and to honor her son’s memory by living as full and rich a life as possible. She has been called a way-shower, or role model, demonstrating that a joyful life after significant loss is possible. Meryl collected stories from 26 other bereaved parents who are not just surviving but thriving, to give others hope that their lives don’t have to end because of the tragedy they suffered. These stories (plus resources for the bereaved0 became the book LOSS, SURVIVE, THRIVE: Bereaved Parents Share Their Stories of Healing and Hope. Her blogs and event information can be found at www.StopEatingYourHeartOut.com, www.SourceTapping.com, and www.LossSurviveThrive.com/.

More Articles Written by Meryl