Category: Compassion

The Labyrinth Leads to Centre

23/9/2021

Labyrinth - Healing For Grieving Hearts - Jacqueline Steudler

Walking a labyrinth always leads you to the centre. The centre of yourself or your soul. You choose (smile)

You never can take a wrong turn. The difference between a maze where you get tripped up by the wrong path or wall, and you have to backtrack. In a labyrinth, you move forward.

We built the labyrinth in our garden a few years back, and every year it seems to become more difficult to keep nature from taking over. We built it when I moved to Nova Scotia from Switzerland seventeen years ago. (WOW)

At the beginning of my new life, I felt lost, not knowing anyone but my spouse and his family. That wasn't always enough to keep me creative and my community-based soul happy.

Homesickness came and went. I wasn't as confident as I had been in my familiar space to go out into a world where I didn't speak the language well enough. Trust me, my then school English wasn't great for an adult conversation. (smile)

In one of those homesickness moments, I remembered my walks in a labyrinth near where I had lived in Switzerland. Yes, in the middle of the bustling city of Zurich, there is a labyrinth a bit hidden in a park. I told my spouse, and we decided to build our own.

It's much smaller than the usual labyrinths, but it's wonderful to walk to the centre early in the morning before starting my day. It's my way of meditating.

A walk in the labyrinth always helps you to find back to your centre. In a time when your emotions are taking over your life, you will find it to be a wonderful addition to calm and nurture your soul.

Don't have a backyard to build your own? No worries, I have you covered.

Even moving your fingers inside the path of a labyrinth can help you have the same benefits as walking it. I've created a short video that shows you how you can draw your own labyrinth. It's super simple. Try it!

Watch here.

Let me know if it helped you too to center and calm your soul. Also, if you have questions or can't get it to work, send me an email; I'm happy to help.

Healing Grief Takes Courage

1/7/2020

I hope you're doing well and your time (mostly) spent at home during the pandemic is a good one. I still find it sometimes tricky that I can't move as freely as before. However, I'm always happy to spend the summers at home in Nova Scotia. Glad to see that more places can open up.

It has been a while since I wrote here. Do you also feel like the pandemic time is a weird one? Time either seems to stand still, or days rush by you?

In April, I released my short-read ebook 'From Grieving to Grateful: How to Heal a Broken Heart'. Thanks to terrific reviews, it became a bestseller on Amazon Canada for three days. (hahaha)
Always fun to see those sales metrics at work. And yes, I admit that it did feel good. (smile)
Following that, I had so many ideas about how I could help more women.

I'm working towards a new offering for grieving women. I want to reach and help more on their healing journey and create a supportive community at the same time.

Just keeping you in suspense for now, but in about two to three weeks, I'm ready to talk about it more and let you in on the secret. (smile) Stay tuned.

We all know that the journey of grief is never a linear one. You and I, we have our up and downs. Some days we breathe in joy, and some days we are just deeply sad and miss our loved one so much that our heart feels like someone is squeezing it.

Be assured that I'm not here to tell you how to grief or that you shouldn't be sad or cry. Instead, I'm here to help you find your healing journey through this messy and sometimes chaotic feeling of grief.

I leave you today with a quote from a young woman that I admire deeply.

"We were scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage."
- Malala Yousafzai

You might be scared of your feelings sometimes. I assure you there is courage in you. And you can tease it out with love and compassion towards yourself. A good laugh with a dear friend helps too. (smile)

From my heart to yours, take good care and stay safe,
Jacqueline

PS: Do you have questions? Just press reply, and I'm happy to answer.

Are you interested in my ebook From Grieving to Grateful? Get it on Amazon. (You can download the free Kindle App on Amazon to read it on your mobile devices or desktop).

Jacqueline Steudler, Artist, Art Therapist, Creative Grief Coach, and Lover of Nature's Beauty

How To Better Grief - A CBC Tapestry Episode

19/8/2018

The other day I listened to CBC's program Tapestry with guest host Christa Couture.

The title of the show was Better ways to live with grief.

The heartfelt discussions were uplifting and at the same time touched me deeply.

I was glad to hear psychologist David Feldman debunking the 5 stages of grief.

If you have followed the Healing Notes for a while then you know that there are no stages and that everyone grieves in their own unique way. It can get messy.

Next up was actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd. Cariad hosts the podcast Griefcast. I have been listening to some of her episodes and they are worth listening to for sure.

Last but not least Christa Couture talked to artist and designer Emily McDowel. Emily creates empathy cards that are to the point and sometimes full of humour.

Emily gave advice on what to say and what not to say when you have a friend that is grieving. I was glad to find her cards in one of our local greeting card shops.

You can listen to this episode of Tapestry at
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/better-ways-to-live-with-grief-1.4723337

Let me know if this or a part of it resonates with you as well.

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday,
Jacqueline

PS: Take a step forward and sign up for the Healing Notes that will arrive in your inbox every second Sunday.

If you want to create rituals and the many ways you can honour your loved one join the Healing Rituals online course.

Click the link to find out more at Healing Rituals.

Why is it difficult to find the right words?

25/3/2018

The last three months have been full of losses for friends and family members.

An accumulation of loss and death was happening.

It made it difficult to be there for every one.

Despite all my knowledge of loss, grief, and support I found myself at a loss for words sometimes.

It was also the repetition of my words that made me feel unsupportive.

Instead I started to write cards and hope that they conveyed my heartfelt support better.

Do you remember awkward moments when you were in the midst of your grief?

Someone reaches out to you.
Only afterwards, you feel more alone than before?

Why is it so difficult to find the right words?

Is it because we have not learned how to empathize with a grieving friend?

Is it because some of our own grief is still lingering making it difficult to be there for others?

And still.

If you are grieving it is important to reach out to others.

To open yourself up to heal.

Perhaps you can forgive your fellow grief travellers for their helplessness and awkward words.

In any case.

Be brave!

Reach out to others.

Get the comfort you need to heal your broken heart.

Take good care,
Jacqueline

PS: If you celebrate Easter and wonder how to get through these holidays have a look at the following posts I wrote about holidays. You can adapt everything to any holiday.

Do you tell yourself to be strong for others?

25/2/2018

Take your time to heal and grow. HealingForGrievingHearts.com

Where are you in your grieving process?
Are you able to be patient with yourself?

When grieving the loss of a loved one we often don’t see over the mountain of pain and sorrow.

We want the pain to stop.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that it is better to ignore our pain. We might distract ourselves with work, Netflix, or hours on social media.

If you have to look out for children you might think that it is better to be strong for them.

Unfortunately the reality is that being strong for others will prolong your grief. Hiding it from your children will teach them that grieving about a loved one is wrong. They might start to hide their feelings as well. You don’t want that.

"Grieving is an inherently human and healthy process. However, when we ignore the reality of the grieving experience, we prolong our pain and cause damage to ourselves. "

When we grieve, we have to integrate a new reality into our lives.

It is important that we have compassion for and with ourselves as we heal.

Take good care,
Jacqueline

PS: Do you want to dive into rituals as healing tools? Healing Rituals online course is here.

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The Labyrinth Leads to Centre

Healing Grief Takes Courage

How To Better Grief - A CBC Tapestry Episode

Why is it difficult to find the right words?

Do you tell yourself to be strong for others?

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