Posts by Erin Garay

Grief does not have to limit or define us.    Join Erin Garay to learn the pivotal role grief plays in our life. We will write. We will meditate. We will make a plan for healing at Deborah’s Palm. Saturday, January 30th at...

The 2 minute healing challenge

So often when we are grieving, we are triggered by the simplest thing, at the simplest time.  The smell of coffee, flowers in a store, a television commercial. When these moments hit us, we find ourselves grieving hard.  It doesn’t matter if your loved one passed away 6 months ago or 20 years ago.  In that moment, it hurts and it hurts bad.  It’s bound to happen to every single one of us, if it hasn’t happened already. But what should we do when this happens? It can be...

Healing Your Grief through Mercury Retrograde: Crazy Healing Jar

It’s the first of the year and it’s mercury retrograde. Whether or not you follow or believe in astrology, it’s going to be important to pay attention to what happens to your grief over the next few weeks. This mercury retrograde period is January 5th-January 25th. The universal purpose of the retrograde is to bring to the surface what is not healed or what needs to be realigned in our lives. As you know, there is quite a lot that needs to be healed and realigned when we...

Healing through the Holidays: The New Year’s +1

  It’s New Year’s Eve. A day for reflection, for remembrance and for looking ahead to the exciting new year to come. Unless, you’re grieving the loss of a loved one. For those healing hearts, there is nothing harder than adding the + 1. This + 1 isn’t about the hot party of the night. It’s not about finding a special date. It’s about adding the +1 to the number of years we have spent away from our loved one. No matter how many years ago...

Healing through the Holidays: A letter to our loved one

  Tonight, children everywhere are going to leave special letters out for Santa and we’re going to join them. However, our letters aren’t going to be written out to Santa.  Our letters are going to be written out to our loved ones. Whether we are grieving the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship or friendship, or a major life change, we are going to write a letter to that person, as if we’re having a holiday catch-up by the fire. Write out everything you...

Healing through the holidays- Christmas tree sharing circle

For some, a week away from Christmas means anticipation building, excitement growing and merriment and joy abound.  But when you are grieving and you’re a week away from Christmas, that is when the emotions really kick into high gear.  We begin to become nervous and anxious over how we’re going to handle that day.  We begin to miss our loved one even more and we find ourselves wishing we could just “skip this year.” It is so incredibly hard.  It is the seasonal...

Healing through the Holidays

Some say, “Third time’s a charm”, but that is not always the case, especially when we are healing a grieving heart. To be honest, the third holiday season without our loved can often times be the most painful of them all. The first year without our loved ones, we are comforted by our family and friends as we “survive” this milestone. Our second holiday season, our closest friends still provide comfort and support as we bolster ourselves up again to survive...

Unwrapping the gift of grief.

  Over the past few months, I’ve been compiling all of my most effective tools, tricks and lessons and creating a journal to be used, written in and cried on off our computers and to be held in our hands.  I’ve been creating another tool for you to heal those beautiful hearts and to acknowledge that you are exactly where you are supposed to be so that God can do his work in you and through you.  It’s coming soon!!  I’ll send out an announcement shortly! As...

Gratitude list makeover.

  Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are honoring yourself right where you need to be today. If that means it makes you happy to be around friends and family, I hope you are there. If that means you need to take this year off and spend some time reflecting on your own heart, I encourage you to give your heart exactly what it needs and take that time. It is ok. The holidays bring up so many emotions, especially while we are grieving. We remember our traditions, our loved ones and,...

Grief: Learning to let it go

  All too often, we get stuck in our heads. We begin to think about a daunting task, a challenging situation or a conversation we need to have with someone, and we turn it into something bigger than it needs to be. This happens whether we are in the depths of our grief journey or not. It happens to everyone, but what can we do differently to alleviate the stress, emotional upheaval and worry that we bring upon ourselves through this experience? We let it go. And I’m not talking...