(This post is a series of daily letters from me to my future children reporting from the emerging paradigm.)
Dear Kids:
Two things that help me with grief the most are talking to my friends and dancing. Right now a lot of people in the world are grieving. Grief about actual death (we’re at 131,000 deaths reported in the US–not including those that weren’t diagnosed which has to be thousands).
Plus regular other human mortality experiences with funeral services put off due to covid quarantine. Without grief rituals it can be harder to move through the difficult feelings.
Plus all the things 2020 might have held for people that got canceled including graduations, weddings, retirements, making a living wage as a performing artist, making a living period. Change is also full of grief, like losing a job.
Dancing, especially opening up my shoulders, is so good to move feelings through me. All of our emotions just want to pass through us. 90 seconds is all it takes for a big feeling to pass. Movement helps those feelings pass before they get to the big feeling part.
Plus endorphins take the edge off grief.
And calling. Connection with other people. It’s why we’re on the planet, to be in relation to one another. All the most life satisfied people talk about how their relationships matter most. Talking to people takes the edge off grief, too. I don’t not talk about what I’m grieving but I don’t focus on it. It helps to be distracted by listening to other people talk about their life!
Call your people. Dance.
Call someone you haven’t talked to in years. Dance.
I think this is the best kind of simple live your best life advice I could give you, for real.
xoxo,
Mom
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