Listen: Coping Through Loss & Grief with Love, Madden: The Podcast
Recently I was a guest on theLove, Maaden: The Podcast and got to chat with the amazing Maaden Eshete Jones + Tennille Daniels. The holidays can be difficult when you are grieving. In this podcast episode, I talk all about the importance of choosing gratitude over grief, anchoring your sorrow in love, plus practical ways to cope with loss and grief.
Listen to the full episode here
Let’s talk about it
If you’ve been around for a while, you know that my focus used to be more on blogging tips, style, and beauty.
“After I lost my mom in 2013, it became really clear for me that I needed to speak up more about gratitude in relation to grief for Black women.”
Walking through grief is more than just prayer. Therapy and community are important.
The most important piece of grief recovery for me has been intentionally choosing gratitude.
Love for my mom
Maaden and Tennille invited me to share who my mom, Denny, was to me and to celebrate who she still is to me— even though she’s no longer physically here. “I choose to relish in the person that I had.”
I reflect on how I believe my mother had a hand in the success that I’ve had after she died.
“I am positive that my momma died and went up to heaven and went to God’s office and said ‘My daughter is down there— she’s gonna need some help.’”
changing grief to gratitude
I want to first acknowledge that it is hard and the first year of grief is going to be like a cloud. It’s hard, but you will find yourself in the open skies again.
“It’s really hard to choose gratitude when all you can see is the grief.”
Grief isn’t a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, but if this is your first holiday without a loved one, create some new traditions. You can create new memories that honor that person without feeling like you’re drowning in grief.
Create a new normal: all of the roadblocks you experience are because you’re trying to recreate what you had.
“There’s a really big difference between sorrow that is rooted in love and sorrow that is rooted in loss.”
Listen to the full episode here
P.S. If you like hearing me on podcasts, check out this interview I did in 2020:
LISTEN: Finding Joy & Healing with The Refined Collective Podcast
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