The Journey Through Grief : Reflections on Healing (eBook)

Reflections on Healing

Ph.D. Alan D. CT Wolfelt (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2003 | 1. Auflage
176 Seiten
Companion Press (Verlag)
978-1-61722-097-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This spiritual companion for mourners affirms their need to mourn and invites them to journey through their very unique and personal grief. Detailed are the six needs that all mourners must yield to and eventually embrace if they are to go on to find continued meaning in life and living, including the need to remember the deceased loved one and the need for support from others. Short explanations of each mourning need are followed by brief, spiritual passages that, when read slowly and reflectively, help mourners work through their unique thoughts and feelings. Also included in this revised edition are journaling sections for mourners to write out their personal responses to each of the six needs. This replaces 1879651114.

Textauszug

THE JOURNEY THROUGH GRIEF: A PROLOGUE The death of someone loved changes our lives forever. And the movement from the 'before' to the 'after' is almost always a long, painful journey. From my own experiences with loss as well as those of the thousands of grieving people I have companioned over the years, I have learned that if we are to heal we cannot skirt the outside edges of our grief. Instead, we must journey all through it, sometimes meandering the side roads, sometimes plowing directly into its raw center. I have also learned that the journey requires mourning. There is an important difference, you see. Grief is what you think and feel on the inside after someone you love dies. Mourning is the outward expression of those thoughts and feelings. To mourn is to be an active participant in our grief journeys. We all grieve when someone we love dies, but if we are to heal, we must also mourn. This series of reflections is but one small attempt to encourage you to journey all through your very unique and personal grief- to help you, when you are ready, gently embrace your need to mourn so that you may heal. Perhaps you can think of this book and these reflections as an invitation-an invitation to mourn! Why a series of reflections? Because another important lesson I have learned is that healing in grief is heart-based, not headbased. Modern therapies sometimes separate the head from the heart, it's as if we should somehow be able to rationally think through our grief. Yet it was Carl Jung who taught us that every psychological struggle is ultimately a matter of spirituality. The reflections in this book encourage you to think, yes, but to think with your heart and your soul. They invite you to go to that spiritual place inside you and, transcending our mourning-avoiding society and even your own personal inhibitions about grief, enter deeply into the journey. This book also describes six 'yield signs' you are likely to encounter on your journey through grief-what I call the 'needs of mourning': 1. Acknowledging the reality of the death. 2. Embracing the pain of the loss. 3. Remembering the person who died. 4. Developing a new self-identity. 5. Searching for meaning. 6. Receiving ongoing support from others. For while your grief journey will be an intensely personal, unique experience, all mourners must yield to this set of basic human needs if they are to heal. In fact, your grief journey will be shaped by your innate compulsion to explore (and somtimes veer away from) each of these needs. You will note that the needs of mourning are numbered 1-6. This is not meant to imply that your grief journey will be an orderly procession toward healing. If you are like most mourners, you will encounter the needs of mourning in random fashion. You will also likely find yourself working on more than one need at once. This is normal. When you pick up this book as you journey through grief, turn to the pages that seem most pertinent. We are accustomed to reading books front to back, but like grief, this book has no unbreechable sequence. In the six years since the first edition of this book was published, many readers have talked with me about The Journey Through Grief as I traveled across North America speaking about grief. The short reflections in this book seem to resonate with mourners. It's as if their very brevity allows mourners an intimate interplay with the words and the concepts they try to describe. You may read a passage and you may stop and think about the passage's relevance to your own grief journey.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.9.2003
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Trennung / Trauer
• ISBN-10: 1-61722-097-3 / 1617220973
• ISBN-13: 978-1-61722-097-5 / 9781617220975