Holiday Healing Tips: Trim Your Event List and Letting Go

Annah ElizabethHoliday Healing Tips, Loss, Grief, and Healing, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

Some of our most favorite holiday traditions include family, friend, community, and corporate gatherings and parties. Many of us derive great pleasure from holiday activities, but they do place additional demands on our time and energy. If you are dealing with conflict or grief following a life loss event, the additional holiday stress can make you feel downright overwhelmed and … Read More

Holiday Healing Tips: Family Gatherings & Being Flexible

Annah ElizabethHoliday Healing Tips, Loss, Grief, and Healing, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

Holidays are meant to be a time for remembering, reflecting, celebrating, giving thanks, and of coming together, Journeyer. Like many of you, I enjoy everything about hosting family and friends in my home. The smell of a meal wafting from the oven, the themed tableware, the drone of catching up chatter and the magic of laughter fill my home and … Read More

Holiday Healing Tips: The Decorations & Asking for Help

Annah ElizabethHoliday Healing Tips, Loss, Grief, and Healing, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

Some of our most favorite holiday pastimes include festive decorations and lights to adorn our homes and businesses. I typically spend a day with Christmas tunes streaming from the television as I carefully and joyously hang garland and strategically place NOEL blocks, Santa tapestries, themed bath linens, and other precious holiday pieces. Though I know a few people who only … Read More

I Am Everyday People

Annah ElizabethHappy Happens ™, Loss, Grief, and Healing, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

Dearest Journeyer, Last week was a mixed bag of emotional lows and highs…times of defeat, redemption, depression, dialogue, desire, and celebration… It’s so hard to put my finger on the pulse of the past seven days, but as I scrolled through the week’s images, one thing stood out: a short clip of Sly and the Family Stones hit song, Everyday … Read More

When Knocking on Doors Meets Opportunity Meets Healing through the Holidays

Annah ElizabethHappy Happens ™, Loss, Grief, and Healing, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ~ Roman Philosopher, Seneca Happy Sunday, Journeyer, Wow…it has been quite the whirlwind week. Rain and sun and wind and frost. That about sums up my fleeting moments of happy, Journeyer, noticing the warmth of the sun, the colors of the morning sky, the birds, the floating leaves, the much-needed rains, and … Read More

American Pride and Pumpkin Pie

Annah ElizabethFamily, Fave, Happiness, Happy Happens ™Leave a Comment

“Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” ~ W.J. Cameron Journeyer, as I reflect on last week, the one designated for “Giving Thanks,” I can’t help but ponder Cameron’s quote above. For many of us, the act of giving thanks takes place in the kitchen where we bake pies, baste turkeys, break out the fine china, and then nearly … Read More

Giving Thanks & Finding Gratitude with Buddha

Annah Elizabeth2 Comments

Well, Journeyer, another week, another dollar, as the saying goes… Even though I shop all year long, I do sometimes find myself beginning to feel the pressure of all that has to be done during the holidays. When I hear that chatter in my head, I know… I know it is time to slow down, pause, and reflect on the … Read More

Need a Lifeline for You or a Loved One?

Annah ElizabethLeave a Comment

  Right now, millions of people all over the world are experiencing a loss due to one of these 5 Ds: Death, Despair, Destruction, Disease, or Dysfunction. When mayhem or mishap touches our lives, we often feel as if we are totally alone and gasping for air. We often feel as if our tragedy defines every nanosecond of our days … Read More

The 5 Ws of Thanks

Annah ElizabethLeave a Comment

What can we give thanks for? Two weeks ago today, the unthinkable happened. A seven-month-old died. In her sleep. The young mother had put her down for a nap. And hours later the twenty-year-old was being whisked from one authority to another. “You would think they could have at least waited to question her. It’s like they think she did … Read More

A Personality Peril

Annah ElizabethLeave a Comment

After the Thanksgiving meal, our family conversation somehow landed on the topic of personality traits. Each of us seems to be bent toward a particular action. Caretaker and fixer are the two types our nine members discussed around the dinner table. I have thought often about my inherent nature. What I have discovered is this: I am the problem solver, the fixer. Many a dilemma places me on a path of contemplation … Read More