Melody LeBaron and Dean Spillane-Walker co-facilitate a two-day community bereavement experience for persons ready to transform their grief
WEAVERVILLE, N.C. /CitizenWire/ — Grief, like the seasons, is part of the normal cycle of life, yet each person experiences it differently. Join grief guides Melody LeBaron and Dean Spillane-Walker for “Heart Broken Open: Grief as a Sacred Path to Reconnection and Resilience,” a new online retreat for the bereaved, on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5-6, 2022. The event is presented by: Transforming Space, Self, and Loss; and by Living Resilience.
The event is designed to transform the experience of grief for those experiencing any significant loss. These include those experiencing:
* the loss of a relationship, family member, pet, home or job
* struggles with trauma, a diagnosis, or an illness
* grief for the devastation of the planet and its peoples
* difficulty coping with stuckness, sadness, or loneliness
Learn more: https://livingresilience.net/griefretreat/
Caregivers such as family members, therapists, coaches, health and wellness practitioners may also benefit from the ritual practices of grief within a community setting.
“Our ancestors accepted grief as a normal part of life,” says LeBaron. “They knew that grief buried alive kills the mind, the body, the soul.”
LeBaron is the author of “Transforming Death: Creating Sacred Space for the Dying” (ISBN: 978-1733477123) a guide for the dying and their caregivers, based on her experience as a midwife for the deaths of 12 of her closest loved ones including her 17-year old son, mother, and sister.
“So, when one person grieved, the tribe gathered and formed ‘a community of mourners,'” she says. “In other words, when a loss happened to one member of the tribe, it was processed and grieved-by the entire tribe.”
Walker says that within a community, grief can be transformed. “Grief is feral,” he says. “It does not come on demand. But grief can be evoked-through stories, writing, movement, and ritual.”
Walker is author of “The Impossible Conversation: Choosing Reconnection and Resilience at the End of Business as Usual” (ISBN: 978-0692900017). He helps create consciousness within communities in ways that encourage the maturation of deep inner resources, as its members bravely face an unimaginable future.
“Grief can be welcomed, integrated, and transformed within the sacred space formed by an intentional community,” Walker says.
But, they say, some losses can’t be managed alone. People may need a community of grievers in order to complete the grief cycle.
“When grief is fully processed and integrated, it transforms into a life-force, a fuel that revitalizes and propels us into reconnection and resilience, as individuals, families, and communities,” says Walker.
But when grief is ignored, tamped down, buried alive, vitality may be buried with it.
“We live in a time when we are experiencing devastating personal-and planetary-loss. It is no longer advisable to grieve privately, to force ourselves to ‘get over it,'” says LeBaron.
Now is the time for a conscious, courageous community grieving. The retreat will include:
* Powerful writing practice to assist in opening our stories of loss
* Deepening our trust in our emotional and body wisdom
* Sharing our stories of loss in a confidential container, to the extent you want that
* An avenue to express our grief over world events
* Learning practices and healing tools to use after the retreat
* Music and Movement that allow us to embody and then release emotions
To learn more about “Heart Broken Open: Grief as a Sacred Path to Reconnection and Resilience,” or to sign up to attend on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and on Sunday, Nov. 6, from noon to 5 p.m., visit: https://livingresilience.net/griefretreat/.
Learn More: https://livingresilience.net/
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