What does it mean to celebrate your grief?
When I sat down to write this book, I had a very different book in mind. I was inspired to share the personal growth and spiritual lessons that were transformative for me. 32 chapters, each focused on a key word that had emerged from my daily studies and I intended to write about them from a positive, positive & negative, scientific and experiential perspective.
But as I delved into each topic another story started to emerge from my experiential perspectives. A story centered around my spirituality and a relationship that had sparked my soul many years ago. I set the first book aside and focused my energy on this second book that felt like it was literally crying out to be written.
Celebrate Your Grief, Transforming Your Loss into Self-Love emerged as I went into the darkness of myself to embrace the parts of me that I had kept silent and suppressed for fear of the pain that were associated with them. In my early twenties I was in a profoundly soulful relationship that felt deeply connected and rooted in spirituality. I had immense love for this man, who, after our romantic relationship ended, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a year later, died by suicide.
Through my research into bipolar disorder, suicide and continuing personal growth studies, I came to recognize that I was frozen in my grief for this person. The more I searched for connection with my higher self, the more often I found him there. It wasn't until I came across a quote from Maryam Hasnaa that I began to truly understand what this connection was. She wrote “When you feel a void from missing someone what you are actually feeling is missing the connection to yourself that you have when you are with that person.”
Celebrating your grief is acknowledging that the grief you feel is equal to the love that you have for your lost beloved. It is recognizing that the love you felt for them is also, and always only could be, the reflection of the love that you are capable of having for yourself. It is taking the time to appreciate those moments, those reminders, the little signs, the tears that come at you unexpectedly and the smiles that they can bring when the memory of your beloved returns you to your love.
The Celebrate Series
I came to learn about and heal myself though deep introspection and writing. I had to remove myself from my surroundings to be able to become fully present and connected with my source energy.
This is where I found the words in my upcoming solo book Celebrate Your Grief. As I take what I have learned about my source connection out into the world around me, I am guided to continue my writing journey with a series of books of which Celebrate Your Grief is the first.
Stay connected with me to pre-order, find out about book launch dates, release dates, podcast interviews, author readings and more!
If you are interested in reading a chapter from Celebrate Your Grief, connect with me below and I will share more of my story.
- I Am Kerri -
On my fortieth birthday, I gifted myself the solace of a float in a sensory deprivation tank. That experience was the catalyst for my re-awakening. It was a pressure cooker for meditation.
In the stillness and silence of the float tank, void of any external distractions, my only option was to turn my awareness inward. Suppressed emotions rose within me. My eyes burned as my tears mixed with the salty water. Inside myself, I found my heart overflowing with grief.
In that moment, I knew I had to re-connect with my spirituality in order to heal from the trauma of losing a dear friend to suicide almost two decades earlier. He had sparked my soul and after his death it became too painful for me to continue on my spiritual path.
I went inward and came out with all of the universe.
In my grief, I learned my greatest power was self-love.
Shining a light on the illusion...
When I align the energy of my heart and my throat chakras, I am empowered to speak about my grief and awakening journey and inspire suicide survivors to break their silence.
Through grief, I transformed. By tuning my awareness inward, I connected with spirit and was guided to a vibration of transcendent self-love. This sensation was the same as when I felt my peak experience with my departed loved one. For decades I believed that I could not feel such ecstasy without him, but I discovered that it is possible to feel unconditional love for myself, with or without him.
Every day we forget. We need to be reminded that on this spiritual journey it is our birthright to feel bliss.
That the thoughts and beliefs we hold create the reality that we experience and that we have the power to shift this reality.
I am grateful to be able to enter this space of self-love more and more of the time. When I do, I see this love reflected back to me in the conversations I have, the people I meet, and on my social media. This brings me great joy.
