Sounds True: When Grief Lands with Love

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"When Grief Lands with Love" with Sherry Walling

"Being able to sit in meaninglessness without losing a basic belief in meaning, it's a little bit tricky to do. But I think to have a worldview that says, 'At my core I believe that life is meaningful. I don't see it right now. I can't grasp it right now, but I believe that eventually I will."

—Dr. Sherry Walling, Ph.D.

 

(Sounds True) As a therapist, Dr. Sherry Walling knew all the "right" things to say to help people in grief. But when she lost her father to cancer and her brother to suicide within six months of each other, she had the unfortunate chance to encounter two types of mourning up close — the slowly unfolding terminal illness and the sudden and stigmatized death by suicide.

Touching Two Worlds

She had a profound realization: We’re getting grief all wrong. In this podcast, Sounds True Founder and Host Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Walling about her new book, Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss, and how we each have the power "to go all the way into our grief to find where it lands with love."

Tune in for this compassionate conversation on:

• Navigating the duality that exists on the opposite spectrums of our lives
• The healing practice of writing about our experiences of grief
• Overcoming the stigma and silence around suicide
• The just-world hypothesis and how traumatic events change our view
• Accepting limitations in life while taking responsibility for finding our own sense of meaning
• Accessing a sense of calm and grace to release the unresolved shock of grief
• Finding closure versus the place "where grief lands with love"
• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW

"With so many of the folks that I work with when they encounter their own grief," explains Dr. Walling, "it takes them down a dark, deep tunnel. And I'm hoping that by sharing a little bit of my own submersion in that world... I hope they'll know a little bit about what it takes to move through those feelings, to embrace those feelings, and to find their joy in the middle of those feelings."

If anyone is experiencing grief that is painfully recent or in the more distant past, we hope that this week’s conversation brings comfort and support.

With you on the journey,

Your friends at Sounds True

 P.S. Discover more about Sherry Walling and her new book, Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss. Sounds True Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Pinterest Sounds True Blog