I guide you through your grief so you can make peace with your pain.
6 Meditation Facts Every Beginner Must Know
I love closing my eyes and turning inward in daily meditation. It’s one of the gifts in my daily life. But my meditation practice didn’t exactly start out this way. My mind didn’t know how to stop. When I sat down and shut my eyes, my body suddenly became keenly aware of every itch and twitch.… Continue Reading
The Goodbye Visit
Monday afternoon. I’d just finished facilitating My Life Story, my weekly group for seniors, now in its ninth year. As she walked out the door, Mary paused. “Oh, Uma. I don’t know if you’ve heard…Eileen has been moved to hospice care.” I felt the middle of my chest cave in. Eileen was one of my… Continue Reading
5 Ways to Support the Grieving
In my previous post I listed the 10 Things the Bereaved Don’t Want to Hear. Once you know what not to say and do, you’re probably thinking: Hmm. Well, what are some ways I can support someone grieving a loss? Often, we’re speechless in the face of someone’s loss. So we lamely offer an awkward… Continue Reading
10 Things The Bereaved Don’t Want to Hear
Awkward as we are around loss, we are equally at a loss for words. So we rush to fill the silence with something, anything. We need to be mindful that the bereaved are people who are walking around without skin. Their pain is raw and real. So if you find yourself stumbling and fumbling when… Continue Reading
Do You Feel Your Feelings?
I remember a moment during my intense grief over my mother’s death. I was sitting on the oatmeal-colored carpet in our living space, tears streaming down my face. My husband looked at me, sighed, and asked the question: “Haven’t you cried enough?” I didn’t know back then what I know today. I didn’t have the… Continue Reading
The Stories We Carry
Ever since I was little, my favorite word has been a five-letter word: STORY. My paternal grandmother whom I called Thaathi was the one who opened the doors to the magical world of stories and storytelling. Five decades later, my greatest joy still comes from sharing and receiving stories. I even created a storytelling group… Continue Reading
Dying To Wake Up: Messages from the Other Side
A world-renowned cardiologist and chief of anesthesiology at Bakersfield Heart Hospital for more than a decade, Dr. Rajiv Parti, M.D. was an addict. Not only was he addicted to the prescription pills he swallowed to numb the pain of depression and other physical ailments, he craved the next hit he got from playing the stock… Continue Reading
3 Mistakes To Avoid While Healing Your Grief
Most of us never think about loss until it happens to us. What follows is the unbearable pain of grief. We’re already in deep waters and must do all we can just to stay afloat. Here are the top 3 mistakes to avoid when you’re grieving. #1. Try not to become attached to a timeline.… Continue Reading
Emotional Decluttering…The Easy Way?
If you woke up this morning and went out into the world, you opened yourself up to grief and loss. Stunning statement? Stick with me while I say more. We think of loss as something BIG. Catastrophe. Trauma. Tragedy. And yet our daily lives are littered with small losses — and many times they bring… Continue Reading
5 Practices That Jumpstart My Day
For many years, I too lived life like most people do — on autopilot. I got out of bed each morning, showered and dressed and ate and sent my daughter off to school before attending to my own work. Nothing terribly wrong with that. Except one thing. I wasn’t being intentional. I wasn’t thinking about… Continue Reading
