Loss is an integral part of being human. It is part of the natural pulsation of life. Losing something is the other side of the coin of gaining something else.
Loss can happen at any stage of life. Yet, the likelihood is that in midlife and beyond it becomes ever more prominent. Being able to deal with loss and death skillfully is no longer a choice but becomes a necessity. Midlife is the time when parents age and have a greater likelihood of passing on. Divorce rates are high and you may have to deal with the loss of a partner. Children are moving out of the house and you might deal with an empty nest. Or maybe it is simply the realization that youth has come to maturation; it is time to let go of your identity as a young woman and you are called into the wise woman years.
Marcia Craighead and I talk about the grieving process and how to skillfully navigate the emotional turmoil that comes with it. Mostly we address major grief like the loss of a family member, job or relationship, trauma from an accident or an impactful experience. However, these skills can just as well be applied to subtler grief that is harder to pinpoint like fading youth.
Marcia Craighead has assisted people and their families in the dying process as a hospice volunteer for 15 years. She is a also certified hakomi practitioner (a form of body centered psychotherapy), long time meditator and meditation leader for 25 years. She was the executive director of the Teton Wellness Institute, a non profit organization focused on health & wellness education in Jackson WY, and now runs the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, CA.
Marcia has incredible insight into the subject of grief and loss. This stems not only from extensive study around the nature of impermanence and resistance as humans to change, but most of all from applying the practices into her own life and counseling others to do the same. Marcia is, what I would call, a true wise elder.
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