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For those grieving, remember that your grief is valid, no matter how it manifests. Whether you choose to express it openly or keep it within, your feelings are important and deserve acknowledgment. Grief can be awkward and unpredictable, but how you navigate it is entirely up to you. You are not alone in your journey through grief.
One of the ways that I have cultivated space for those to grieve was by creating Vilomah, a Clubhouse group. Along with PhD candidate Sharon Turnage, LMSW, CASAC-T, I colead with parents who have experienced the loss of a child. We come together to share stories of resilience and growth after loss. Our group offers a safe space for healing and connection via a virtual club that allows people to drop in and talk.
—Janaris Lambright, HeartMath® certified trainer
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SHARING SOURCES |
| National Home Funeral Alliance |
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The National Home Funeral Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that is the leading body of home after-death care support and education in the United States, with support abroad as well. Created in 2010, the NHFA boasts members from all 50 states, along with five provinces and seven countries.
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Many members are home funeral guides who also identify as licensed funeral directors, ordained ministers, educators, body workers, licensed social workers, registered nurses, therapists and counselors, directors of nonprofits, attorneys, and physicians.
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ASK INELDA
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Is there a space to offer resources in this work? —Training participant
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| Educator Wilka Roig: We exist in a culture of death denial. While we are on this journey, we are ambassadors. Within this cultural context it is a revolution to dare to connect to something that is inherently ours. We are all experts when we allow ourselves to know what we know. To realize how much we know. To make conscious what we know. When we do so in community, we are so liberated and immediately connected with each other. In this commitment to this training, you are already doing that work. We have the freedom to have our own experience and truth about it.
You have a voice to educate, and that is…in this work. You can do talks at the library, write articles for publications, invite people to conversations—let’s learn from one another. You can create spaces that are more structured by offering talks on signs and symptoms with your community or by discussing the role of death doulas. READ MORE
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| Please submit questions to [email protected] |
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| SELF-CARE |
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Finding the Care We Each Need
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Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?
—Bob Marley
This morning I had a conversation about being a death doula with someone in a tangential field. She exclaimed, “Self-care—you can’t do your work without self-care.” And it is true. I’d also like to suggest that we can’t “do life” without self-care. For those of us in the many fields devoted to supporting one another, the self-care piece is essential.
So how do you “do self-care”? My breakfast buddy shared that her self-care is a monthly two-hour bubble bath, because that was what she had the time for. And I honor that. At the same table was another individual, new to the deathcare field, who asked what works for me. I proceeded to tell her about my routine for hospice visits. On the drive up, it’s me and Bob Marley, and then on the way back I always stop at a market for fresh vegetables and fruits. Something about life-affirming nutrition balances me post-hospice visit. READ MORE
—Loren Talbot
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