Turning Grief Into Gratitude


Book Description

Discover how to comfort a mourner and how to overcome your own grief after a loved one dies. After 35 years of consoling and counseling mourners as a rabbi and psychologist, Rabbi Bulka takes you on an insightful journey through the intricacies of his grieving following the deaths of his parents, and illustrates how grief can be turned into gratitude.




Zenspirations


Book Description

Patterning is fun, easy and relaxing. It is a great way to add interest and texture to any design. Whether you like to journal, draw, doodle, design, or craft, you'll find a world of inspiration here. These decorative borders, frames, shapes, and alphabets will appeal to a spectrum of tastes and styles.




Transcending Loss


Book Description

“Compassionate, poignant, and practical. . . . Transcending Loss will be a great blessing on your lifetime journey of recovery.”—Harold Bloomfield, MD, psychiatrist and author of How to Survive the Loss of Love and How to Heal Depression Death doesn’t end a relationship, it simply forges a new type of relationship—one based not on physical presence but on memory, spirit, and love. There are many wonderful books available that address acute grief and how to cope with it. But they often focus on crisis management and imply that there is an "end" to mourning, and fail to acknowledge grief’s ongoing impact and how it changes through the years. “This is a book about death and grief, yes, but more important, it is a book about love and hope. I have learned from my experience and interviews with courageous people about pain, struggle, resiliency, and meaning. Their stories show over time, you can learn to transcend even in spite of the pain.”—from the introduction by Ashley Davis Bush, LCSW




Gratitude in Grief


Book Description

Gratitude In Grief chronicles a mother's journey into the unimaginable-the death of her son. This is a personal journal of reflection in the days following the death, and the unexpected approach she took in dealing with her grief that changed her forever. To the surprise of many, this mother made a choice to look for "one little thing" to be thankful for each day while coping with her loss. She survived by cataloguing every small blessing she saw-from feeling grateful for her relationship with God to being thankful that she had a few hours alone to fall apart and grieve. Each blessing was a message that hope is never lost and love never dies. This daily gratitude changed the process of her grief, but also sparked a reflection on life, purpose, and faith that has changed the author forever. By documenting the events surrounding her son's death in the days and months afterward, Kelly Buckley gives readers a firsthand glimpse at the unbreakable bonds of love, the power of gratitude and the freedom that purpose in your life grants you. Through heartache and humor it provides hope and a nontraditional path through grief for those suffering loss in their own lives. An absolute read for anyone experiencing loss and a wake-up call for others to be present in your life, to listen to your inner voice, and to live your life to the fullest. In Gratitude in Grief, Buckley poetically shares her journey with readers, chronicling the challenges and the setbacks, as well as the moments of grace she found in the midst of grief. Her book will reassure others that they don't have to be alone in their pain and set them on the path to healing.




Loving Grief


Book Description

Bennett offers advice for those experiencing grief.




The Wild Edge of Sorrow


Book Description

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and be stretched large by them. As seen on All There Is with Anderson Cooper Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it. The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.




Option B


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy. Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B. We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.




You Are Not Alone


Book Description

This book is a life raft in a grief storm. From the first gripping chapter, when Debbie's husband dies expectedly in her arms, she takes readers by the hand and offers them gentle insights for healing and hope, while sharing her powerful story of loss. As a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and grief, Debbie and her wisdom can help you too.




Finding Meaning


Book Description

In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler—an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving—journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning. In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler Ross first identified the stages of dying in her transformative book On Death and Dying. Decades later, she and David Kessler wrote the classic On Grief and Grieving, introducing the stages of grief with the same transformative pragmatism and compassion. Now, based on hard-earned personal experiences, as well as knowledge and wisdom earned through decades of work with the grieving, Kessler introduces a critical sixth stage. Many people look for “closure” after a loss. Kessler argues that it’s finding meaning beyond the stages of grief most of us are familiar with—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that can transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience. In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler’s insight is both professional and intensely personal. His journey with grief began when, as a child, he witnessed a mass shooting at the same time his mother was dying. For most of his life, Kessler taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about end of life, trauma, and grief, as well as leading talks and retreats for those experiencing grief. Despite his knowledge, his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son. How does the grief expert handle such a tragic loss? He knew he had to find a way through this unexpected, devastating loss, a way that would honor his son. That, ultimately, was the sixth state of grief—meaning. In Finding Meaning, Kessler shares the insights, collective wisdom, and powerful tools that will help those experiencing loss. Finding Meaning is a necessary addition to grief literature and a vital guide to healing from tremendous loss. This is an inspiring, deeply intelligent must-read for anyone looking to journey away from suffering, through loss, and towards meaning.




Thanks for The Dance: Transforming Grief into Gratitude when Your Spouse Dies


Book Description

Your spouse's death catapults you into a nightmare -likely the most stressful event of our life. You feel numb, loneliness overwhelms you, you feel adrift - desperate for something to hang onto. You want to pull the covers up over your head and make this all go away. The pain and suffering seem unbearable. You search for some magic answer or formula to make things "all better." Fred and Jeri are two ordinary folks who have both been there and found a pathway they hope will help you find your way too. "Pain is Inevitable - Suffering is Optional" -Buddhist Proverb Nothing will make the pain of this loss magically go away. You can reduce the suffering. Fred and Jeri offer numerous suggestions for dealing with the things we all experience, several unique exercises to help you figure out important feelings and emotions, and many inspirational quotations. They talk about things seen in no other book. They made it though this nightmare and so can you! "I had no expectation of finding the book so engaging and so on point." --George Devine, widower "Your book is a kind and generous action to help others during one of the hardest times in a life. Thanks for caring enough to share light when others are in the dark." --Fred Dudding, widower "Like a personal support group, helps through the pain of loss and charting a course for those who have loved and lost. An essential guide that offers hope and guidance to those who are grieving. A truly wonderful way to reframe the dark days of hopelessness that follow the death of a partner! And what a gift this roadmap to rebuilding a life this can be for the partner!" --Judy Seifer, Ph.D. Professional Marital and Family Therapist "Very Moving"--Toby Talbot, Best Selling Author