MSI Press Blog

  excerpt from Harnessing the Power of Grief (Potter) Introduction Grief, the process by which we adjust to the losses in our lives, is often one of the most devastating and life-changing experiences in a human being’s life. Like all who have come before us, each of us will suffer important losses and will experience grief. A fraction of us will experience complicated grief and will benefit from professional help. Treatment of complicated grief is beyond the scope of this book, as discussed below. Most of us will experience normal grief, still very difficult, but manageable without professional help. In time, with our inner and outer resources, we will make a satisfactory adjustment to our loss. How do we do this? We harness the power of grief, and that is the subject of this book. In my career, I coordinated a hospital-based wellness program including a spousal bereavement program. Volunteers, who themselves had been widowed for at least two years, provided help and support to t

  Excerpt from Harnessing the Power of Grief  (Potter): What Grief Is and Why It Is Important   “We have all come through it or we will all come to it.” —Elizabeth Alexander [ Alexander ] [1]             Grief is a natural human response.   Most of us can adjust and adapt to life’s daily changes and losses. We have goals in mind, and we have an idea of how life is going to go. We have a level of comfort about our skills as each day proceeds. We rapidly adjust to the little changes of life—the traffic jam, the toddler’s tantrum, the meeting that goes on and on, the unidentified noise in the night, the forgotten item at the grocery store.   Think of how many times in the day we have to take a deep breath, mutter some exasperated words, say a prayer, try to be patient and loving, or try to be strong in the face of our goals and dreams being thwarted or challenged by life’s little changes. Loss is present but not overwhelming, and we easily manage to do what we must to sta