Part memoir of complicated grief, part professional perspective on bereavement, part guidebook through the transcendental journey through grief, THE WISDOM OF GRIEF is about using tragedy as an opportunity for transformation, providing a method for how to turn our tragedies into our greatest source of inner wealth. It is a comprehensive, solution based account which guides us, whatever our spiritual affiliation, toward the gifts in this widespread and very human experience. THE WISDOM OF GRIEF is a map, guiding us gently to a place beyond fear, where an immense treasure lies, waiting to be unearthed.
Nautilus Book Award Gold Winner A psychotherapist offers “crucial” guidance on how to “alter fundamentally our fearful relationship to deep feelings,” from depression and anxiety to grief and fear (Los Angeles Times) We are all touched at some point by the dark emotions of grief, fear, or despair. In an age of global threat, these emotions have become widespread and overwhelming. While conventional wisdom warns us of the harmful effects of “negative” emotions, this revolutionary book offers a more hopeful view: there is a redemptive power in our worst feelings. Seasoned psychotherapist Miriam Greenspan argues that it’s the avoidance and denial of the dark emotions that results in the escalating psychological disorders of our time: depression, anxiety, addiction, psychic numbing, and irrational violence. And she shows us how to trust the wisdom of the dark emotions to guide, heal, and transform our lives and our world. Drawing on inspiring stories from her psychotherapy practice and personal life, and including a complete set of emotional exercises, Greenspan teaches the art of emotional alchemy by which grief turns to gratitude, fear opens the door to joy, and despair becomes the ground of a more resilient faith in life. “This remarkable book has taught me a whole new way of thinking.” —Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People “A beautiful piece of work destined to become a perennial classic.” —Martha Beck, author of The Joy Diet
Subject: When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable, especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, 'NO!' with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should. This book is a companion for life and most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. The author, who is also a bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field accompanies the reader along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities, as well as her own experience with loss, the author opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief
This timeless classic, in large-print format, is accessible and comforting for all who are grieving. For fifty years Good Grief has helped millions of readers, including NFL players and a former first lady, find comfort and rediscover hope after loss. The large-print edition of this classic text features a foreword by one of the nation's leading communicators of medical health care information and an afterword by the author's daughters that shares how the book came to be. Good Grief offers valuable insights on the emotional and physical responses we all may experience during the natural process of grieving. The book identifies ten stages of grief--shock, emotion, depression, physical distress, panic, guilt, anger, resistance, hope, and acceptance--but, recognizing that grief is complex and deeply personal, shows there is no "right" way to grieve. This large-print edition makes this bestseller more accessible to all. Whether one is mourning the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage, the loss of a job, or other difficult life changes, Good Grief is a proven steady companion in times of loss.
In this “volume of rare sensitivity, penetrating understanding, and profound insights” (Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, author of Living When a Loved One Has Died), Dr. Kenneth Doka explores a new, compassionate way to grieve, explaining that grief is not an illness to get over but an individual and ongoing journey. There is no “one-size-fits-all” way to cope with loss. The vital bonds that we form with those we love in life continue long after death—in very different ways. Grief Is a Journey is the first book to overturn prevailing, often judgmental, ideas about grief and replace them with a hopeful, inclusive, personalized, and research-backed approach. New science and studies behind Dr. Doka’s teaching upend the dominant but incorrect view that grief proceeds by stages. Dr. Doka helps us realize that our experiences following a death are far more individual and much less predictable than the conventional “five stages” model would have us believe. Common patterns of experiencing and expressing grief still prevail, yet many other life changes accompany a primary loss. For example, the deaths of parents, even for adults, modify family patterns, change relationships, and alter old family rituals. Unique to this book, Dr. Doka also explains how to cope with disenfranchised grief—the types of loss that are not so readily recognized or supported by society. These include the death of ex-spouses, as well as non-fatal losses such as divorce, the end of a friendship, job loss, or infertility. In addition, Dr. Doka considers losses that might be stigmatized, including death by suicide or from disease or self-destructive behaviors such as smoking or alcoholism. And finally, Dr. Doka reminds us that, however painful, grief provides opportunities for growth.
Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.
Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the center of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Die Wise is for those who will fail to live forever. Dying well, Jenkinson writes, is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. Die Wise dreams such a dream, and plots such an uprising. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our capacity for a village-mindedness, or breaks it. Table of Contents The Ordeal of a Managed Death Stealing Meaning from Dying The Tyrant Hope The Quality of Life Yes, But Not Like This The Work So Who Are the Dying to You? Dying Facing Home What Dying Asks of Us All Kids Ah, My Friend the Enemy
In the style of a quote-a-day collection, this book from Wisdom’s bestselling author Joanne Cacciatore distills down the award-winning book Bearing the Unbearable into easy-to-access small chunks, and includes much brand-new material, including new prose and poems from Dr. Jo and other sources as well. From INDIES Gold Medal Award-Winner and Wisdom Bestseller Joanne Cacciatore If you love, you will grieve—and nothing is more mysteriously central to becoming fully human. This book is a companion to carry with you throughout your day, to touch in with and be supported by when bearing the unbearable pain of a loved one’s death—whether weeks or years since their passing. Our culture often makes the bereaved feel alone, isolated, broken, and like they should just “get over it”—this book offers a loving antidote. Open to any page and you’ll find something that will instantly help you feel not alone, while honoring the full weight of loss. This book is comprised of quotations from Bearing the Unbearable, and other sources as well, plus an enormous amount of new material from Dr. Jo. Especially well-suited for the grieving mind that may struggle with concentration, just 30 seconds on any page will empower, hearten, and validate any bereaved person—helping give strength and courage to bear life’s most painful losses. Praise for Bearing the Unbearable “This masterpiece is the greatest gift I could give to someone entrenched in grief, or to the loved ones of the bereaved.”—The Tattooed Buddha “Simply the best book I have ever read on the process of grief.”—Huffington Post “Anyone who's trying to deal with a loss, or anyone who knows someone dealing with a loss, (and in truth, isn't that everyone?) will benefit from reading this amazing book.”—Foreword Reviews “It offers hope for those who feel like their loss has disconnected themselves forever from humanity and the circle of life.”—Doug Bremner, MD, professor of psychiatry, Emory University and author of You Can’t Just Snap Out of It “This is a holy book, riddled with insight and compassion.”—Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow
Amid the world-shattering pain of loss, what helps? In the tradition of C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Guy Newland offers this brave record of falling to pieces and then learning to make sense of his pain and grief within his spiritual tradition. Drawing inspiration from all corners of the Buddhist world--from Zen stories and the Dalai Lama, to Pema Chödrön and ancient Pali texts--this book reverberates with honesty, kindness, and deep humanity. Newland shows us the power of responding fully and authentically to the death of a loved one.
This hopeful and encouraging memoir is Ruth Rigby's compelling account of what it's like to become a widow and to live a newly widowed life. She knew how to be wife. She did not know how to be widow-alone. She longed for another widow's wisdom to guide her, and sought books laser-focused on "How did you live? What did you do? How long did recovery take?" She wanted a story around those difficult questions-a story of how grief made room for happiness. This book imparts her heartfelt wisdom and understanding as a woman who can dwell with you in your experience of loss. After analyzing her own twenty month life-after-death experience, Ruth finally understood how her "widow identity" diminished then disappeared. Grief was a room, but she did not dwell there. This book tells the story of how that happened, invites the reader to personalize the story, and gently nudges the reader to act in ways mindful of happiness. It is Ruth's insight into specific lived experiences that will guide a newly widowed woman to exchange fear of an uncertain future for understanding of how grief can make room for happiness. At the core is a willingness to make changes and live differently. Like the chambered nautilus, she gradually "left the past year's dwelling for the new". She purposefully created room for happiness. This book is for every other woman who seeks a wisdom experience to help live her newly widowed life
