Grief and Loss

<p>There are lots of forms of grief and loss. The most obvious is when someone has died, but we can also grieve in many other ways, like the end of a relationship, the diagnosis of a serious illness, not being able to have a baby, or the loss of a dream.</p><p> </p><p>We all will go through some form of loss at some point. It’s inevitable. I get emails regularly from people who are grieving or even holding themselves back from feeling that grief.</p><p> </p><p>We can sometimes steer away from talking about hard things because we think something bad might happen. Growing up, I was taught it was taboo to talk about loss and grief and what it might mean to lose someone. In the Philippines, people believed that talking about it would almost call it in, like a self-fulfilling prophecy or a jinx.</p><p> </p><p>But when we close off to grief and loss and turn away from it, we are missing out on a big opportunity – and a kind of spiritual gift.</p><p><br />Grief is an emotion that seasons us, makes us more human and alive. It’s an emotion that I have come to welcome whenever it arrives in my own life.</p><p> </p><p>It cleanses me.</p><p><br />When we let grief or loss have its way with us, we can be transformed into something more tender.</p><p> </p><p>I remember my own grief when I found out I had cancer… both times. I grieved the loss of my physical strength and prowess as a climbing guide of 10 years. I reached out to a friend who had also struggled with their cancer diagnosis and asked them, “how do you have faith in your body?”</p><p> </p><p>How did they not believe when the doctors told them they had 6 months to live (multiple times)? That they may not ever have children of their own?</p><p> </p><p>I was begging to be given faith in myself and my body, but I had to sit in the grief first. When I did, I saw my humanity, my impermanence, and my absolute need for other humans.</p><p><br />It was that experience of waking up in my loss that inspired me to start my coaching business and help people live life to the full