The Grief and Happiness Alliance

water

Your Relationship With Money

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When dealing with the transition of a loved one, especially someone you had money in common with, finances can be a challenge.  For me this came up with both of my husbands, and also my Mother and my Aunt who I had conservatorship of. With my husbands there was much I had to do with bank accounts, credit cards, investments, medical expenses, taxes, and funeral expenses.

Fortunately, I had shared all of our financial matters with my husbands. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to know about my mother’s or my aunt’s finances. My mother and my aunt both were diagnosed with inoperable brain tumors. I didn’t see this coming in either case, so I didn’t get to ask them what they wanted me to do with their finances before it was too late.

What helped me the most was my relationship with money. Much of my life money caused anxiety for me for a variety of reasons. I knew I could do better.  A friend recommended the Book The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist to me.  Reading that book allowed me to change my whole perspective on money so that I haven’t stressed about it since, and I have more money and donate more money than I ever thought possible. I highly recommend you read this book too.

Lynn Twist was the fund-raiser for the World Hunger Project and is the co-founder for the Pachamama Alliance which empowers indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserves their land and culture. She has a rich background in service to others and working internationally with people from Mother Teresa to corporate executives. She developed her own philosophy on what money is and believes it is a gift she has been given to pass on to others, and she does just that.

This is Lynn’s description of her Book: “This book is about living consciously, fully, and joyfully in our relationship with money, and learning to understand and embrace its flow. This is your opportunity to embark on a rare journey, one that aligns money and soul, to transform your life.”

I feel so strongly about this book and the invaluable lessons I learned which totally changed my relationship with money. I now love money, I love what it can facilitate, I love being generous and philanthropic, and I have no financial worries anymore.  Of course, I had to do much more than just read the book, but the book helped me transform my thinking about money forever.

And I feel so strongly about this that I will send the book to the first five people who email to tell me they would like a copy. I love to pay it forward by sharing this book.

And if you have read it, please let me know and tell me how it affected you!

 

You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking here: https://www.griefandhappiness.com/offers/ytK7eLBa

You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon.

You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, here. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/loving-and-living-your-way-through-grief-with/id1509589686?i=1000535381763

I would be happy to put you on the reminder list for or Writing Together Through Grief occurring on Saturdays each week by sending an email to me to emily@lovingandlivingyourwaythroughgrief.com and giving me your email address.

Join my Facebook group here.

70

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Earlier in life, I thought 70 was pretty old. Now that I am 70, I’ve changed my mind on that. The older I get, the younger I feel. When my mother was 70, she looked and acted like my former perception of 70, so I thought that was what was in store for me. I’ve since drastically changed my perception. Now I know that I can have and do anything I want, and I can release everything I know longer need. What does that look like?

When I have faced a few health challenges, I pay attention to them and reflect on what the challenges are trying to teach me. For instance, when I started getting dehydrated, I realized that I needed to drink more water. I know that sounds simple, but I just hadn’t been paying attention to what I was drinking, so when I drank less, I also ate less and started to feel lousy. I saw that there was a simple fix to that, and as I drank more, I started to eat more, and my energy came back, and I feel so much better! This made me remember that taking good care of my self is my priority. Like they say when we fly, put the oxygen mask on yourself first. That’s the only way I will be able to live the life of service that I desire.

Another example was that I was getting so low on energy. I just sat and read or worked on the computer. The longer I sat, the less energy I had. Again, there was an easy cure. I got up! I went to a retreat in the mountains where there was lots of walking in a beautiful space. I visited family who walk everywhere, and I went on beautiful walks with them.  I even went to an Aeriel yoga class. Floating in silk doing Vipassana was a transforming experience! Now I am looking forward to the joy of movement, of walking, of feeling wonderful!

My Ohana, Hawaiian for family, gave me a wonderful celebration in honor of my birthday. I danced all night and loved every moment! That felt so great! I realize the age is just a number. I can choose to feel old. I can choose to feel young. I choose to feel great in every moment and to release any thought or stuff that no longer serve me! My intention in this new decade is to focus on life, on living, on service, and on love! And I encourage you to join me on this journey.

 

Check out my web site for more help.

Life is like Water

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Water has been on my mind lately. We’ve had more rain in the last month on Maui than I think we’ve had in the three and a half years I have lived here. Everything is wet, so wet that it’s mushy. If you stand on the grass, you will sink, feeling a little like shallow quicksand.  Yet everything is so beautiful, a verdant green bursting with life. And the water is flowing, like in the ditch on the side of our property where is flows like a stream with water running down from Haleakala’s top where snow is melting.

This is such a stark contrast to where we were living in Ventura before we moved here that everything was so dry with the ongoing drought that we were encouraged to pull out our lawns and replace them with succulents that needed little water, or even cover our front yards with rocks. And with all that dryness came devastating fires. So please don’t think I am complaining about the lovely rain we are having.

I am grateful to live where our water is safe to drink because it is rainwater naturally filtered through underground, porous volcanic rock. So we’re blessed with this pure, clean water. And it is so pure and clean because it keeps moving. When water doesn’t move, where it accumulates in puddles or ponds, it becomes stagnant, it smells, and it can be full of unhealthy elements.

What does all this have to do with grieving? Many times when people grieve, they get stuck. Doing what they need to so they can be healthy is just too hard. They sit and can’t seem to make an effort to get up, to move around or go out for a walk, let alone go to the gym or to participate in a healthy activity. When this happens, they become stagnant. This can lead to lack of energy and health problems, which leads to more to be sad about. And it’s not unusual to not drink enough when they feel this way. This can lead to dehydration, which can show up as bad breath, a sticky mouth, dry skin, fever, and lots more symptoms like urinary tract infections. You may not even realize you are thirsty.

When you are well hydrated, you look better, you feel better, and you are healthier. Just as the comparison between land affected by drought as opposed to where there is plenty of rain, the difference is so obvious. When grieving, self-care is vital, and one of the easiest things you can do to feel better is to get plenty of water to drink, water, not sodas and juice. Have some herbal tea, or squeeze some lemon into a class of ice water. The simplest thing like drinking water can make an amazing difference  in how you feel.

I raise a toast to you of lovely lemon water. Please virtually clink my glass and have a drink of your own!