Season 4 Episode 5 Grieving

This episode talks about grieving and how and why an approach using both naturopathic medicine and the expressive arts can keep you balanced and sane, literally in this difficult but precious time.

Grieving the loss of a loved one is not easy work. This is why it's so important to do whatever you can on your own to balance your body and mind in every way you know how.  My book Transforming Trauma, a drugless and creative path to heal PTS and ACE (Adverse Childhood Events) that ironically came out a few weeks before my husband went in the hospital there is a lot of information and measures offered to  maximize the best health possible, ensuring metabolic pathways get what they need to do the best job whether optimal nutrition,  supplementation, help in digestion and sleep, and so on. If we alternatively we comfort ourselves with sweets or late nights or other draws we can soon take a deep dive in our emotions and mental health.  I know it's not easy, I'm going through it myself, but what choice do we have? It can be a fine line between sanity and mental imbalance all the while you're in the midst of deep grief. 

By tending to our needs with a bit of care we feed healthy metabolic avenues that affect the brain and help instead to calm the intense emotions that accompany grief and often shock, even if you thought you were preparing for the inevitable. Knowing how to take care of yourself on the physiological level can mean making or breaking the psychological level. If we can make choices that give us both comfort and nutrition we can maintain or gain enough energy to feel the loss instead of simply jumping back into bed and pulling the covers over your head waiting for the pain to recede. (Although you can do that if you need to, you will most likely crater further which will lead to exhaustion and depression.) And this is when the expressive arts come into play, by choosing to write or sing or act or draw or sculpt we allow our creativity to take us to understand our loss, giving your grief a voice as you allow yourself to feel your emotions, tending to your grief,  and in time move forward. Yes it means focus and work but this is very special journey, and as you feel and grieve your loved one you also feel the gratitude of the time you had together. That's the loss, the joy and comfort, and familiarity, whether you are grateful for their laughter or their hands or the beauty of their eyes know. I wish you the very best on this sacred journey which will teach you so much about life and yourself, ultimately honoring the one who gave you so much.