Grief Works: Self Care & Love

My brother recently used MAID, or medical assistance to die, after months of rapidly losing his abilities to move, talk, eat, swallow and breathe with Multiple System Atrophy. While I was glad for him that he was able to die on his own terms I found it extremely difficult to navigate grieving him while he was still living while I was helping to take care of him, then watching death sick his life from him when he took the concoction of meds , and now grieving the loss of my brother. I still don’t know the use of grief. I have a wonderful therapist and joined an in-person grief support group because I strongly believe healing happens in the context of face-to-face relationships with other real live humans, but haven’t found the support group to be particularly helpful. This app IS amazingly helpful. I’m so glad I found it. The range of support strategies it offers provides a wealth of options to choose from. I love how this app allows each user to take what we need as we need it. I can’t say enough good about it. The daily gratitude reviews, the lessons, the mindfulness exercises, the regular prompts to reflect, the visualizations, breathing exercises, etc. offer a huge toolbox. I’m exceedingly grateful to be able to use this app to lean on and guide me on my journey. I highly recommend it. It’s invaluable.

I’ve just been using the app a couple of months and can already tell that the design, the tools, and the measured quality content work well with the way my brain works. And so I keep coming back to it. I cannot say that about many apps. It is self paced so I can interact as I wish and the nudges, should I agree to them, are gentle and non invasive. Which I appreciate because grief comes and goes and I do not always feel up to engaging the feelings needed to process and heal. I am glad I purchased this app over anything else that is out there, it has already proven it’s value to me, and when I do the math doesn’t cost more than the many entertainment streaming services I subscribe to. I would rather invest in my healing several hours a week if I had to choose between the two. I’ve learned that grief can present in many different forms that we don’t normally associate. I’ve also learned I’ve been grieving a series of events most of my life and blamed the events or the loss or the people as causing the pain. When what I was really doing was grieving them. I highly recommend using this app, it could improve your life.

I had lost my brother to covid, I found myself coming up against the friction of covid being a constant conversation (news, small talk, social media, etc.) while also holding space for the loss inside. I was exhausted and tired, and truly hurting and needed some extra support. I’d read online about this app so I thought I’d try it out. I had no expectations and was also skeptic, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The exercises helped me wrap my head and heart around things. It gave me a space to open up to myself about my own grief. And to slow the spinning world down enough to make space for this new reality. It’s been a couple months since I finished the program and I truly truly feel it helped me process a sudden and painful loss while also living in a politicized global health crisis. The app gave me a place to connect and process. If you are seeking ways to support yourself as you process your loss, I would absolutely recommend this app. It without a doubt helped me process and was worth the time and effort. Losing someone we love can be so overwhelming and lonely at times. But there is hope, even in an app on your phone. And it does help. ❤️