Tonight is our live event, and it’s not too late to join us!  

Today we want to share a bit of Annie’s story from grief to growth.

Register today!  

It’s not my usual mode to dive into research and science when my world is upside down. I usually go to my intuition, mystical awareness and spiritual classics. I received so many wonderful and enlightening spiritual books to support me after our son’s death, and I welcomed each and every one of them as a gift of love, mutuality, and support for me. I read none of them. 

Instead, I dove into all of the research studies of the past few years to look more closely at exactly what was happening to my brain after losing our son. I wanted to know what was creating the spiritual experiences I was having and what spiritual practices were most effective to grow beyond grief. What I discovered was that most grief books describe the experience of grief, and many normalize, validate, and provide a map for you to follow so that you have some sort of orientation to what is happening. Few of them tell you ‘why’ it is happening.

Mary Frances-O’Connor helped me understand how the brain essentially gets a ‘hole’ from the attachments to someone or something that is formed inside our mind. This adds to the feeling of disorientation and intense emotions immediately after losing someone or something significant. Like searching for a set of lost keys that are always on the hook by the door, our brains are looking for that attachment and connection. 

What is fascinating, though, is that those who identify as spiritual or religious tend to recover faster from grief and experience reduced symptoms of grief. Like putting a new plug in the ‘hole’, experiencing someone or something in an alive, sacred way through spiritual practice creates a new attachment or connection again. Our loved one or loved thing isn’t lost and gone and never to be found again. We rediscover our connection with them that is eternal.

This is the crux of what we want to share with you tonight. Spirituality makes a difference in how we can grow beyond our grief. In grief and loss, we aren’t leaving anyone or anything behind. We are re-creating a vibrant connection with them that transcends death. We discover that whom or what we lost is not gone. They are with us –always. 

With love,

Annie

P.S. It’s not too late to register for tonight! We look forward to seeing you there!