Lisa Irish - Grieving With a Grateful Heart

The invitation of grieving with a grateful heart seeks to reach across individual styles with tangible suggestions for healing. It is an image of rekindling the relationship with lost loved ones through the generous guidance of gratitude. Cultivating gratitude, we renew and strengthen the gift and bond of love. Our memories become sources of hope when we discover that the shared love will comfort us still in this new time of life. The overwhelming experience of grief can leave us brokenhearted and alone. Our heart wanders through the day, seeking our loved one, but finding instead an aching absence. Memories become sources of pain, reminders of what is missing. Friends and family try to help. Friends and family try to help.

Often, their efforts just dont fit our needs. Sometimes we get lost in the process of grieving. We lose touch with ourselves as well as our loved one. This is the time to learn respect for grief and for your grieving heart. This is the time to trust griefs process of healing. Gratitude teaches our hearts while offering comfort and hope. Gratitude is a gift of love, for it reconnects us to our loved ones across the mystery of death. Gratitude opens our hearts, slowly and gently. Gratitude opens our hearts, slowly and gently.

Gratitude offers soothing relief as we travel through grief. Give yourself permission to explore gratitude and cultivate a grateful heart. Remind yourself of the blessings in your life. Make a list of everything you are grateful for. Sunsets, puzzles, best friends, tennis, grandchildren, music. In the quiet of morning or the calm of night, look at your blessings, and offer a prayer of gratitude. Let your heart feel, even for the briefest of moments, the warm connections you associate with the people, places, and things on your list. Breathe, close your eyes, trust. Breathe, close your eyes, trust.

Allow your heart to heal just a little bit. As you practice being grateful, gratitude becomes a balm on the throbbing wound of loss. Each step you take to bring gratitude into your life will help you bring gratitude into your grieving. When your mind turns to who is missing, pause, embrace what is present today, and say thank you. Say thank you for the blue sky, breathe thank you for the fresh air, sing thank you for the new day. Let gratitude become your prayer. Let gratitude become your prayer.

Let gratitude be the doorway into living in the present moment, with love alongside. Sometimes, there are setbacks. Grief, like all aspects of life, has rhythms. The change of season, special holidays, and other life events are strong reminders that she or he is not here. Grief is unpredictable. Trust the process of grieving as you learn to trust yourself.