Brandi Lust, a speaker and consultant focused on creating safe spaces for sharing truths, joins to discuss navigating grief. They explore how grief impacts personal identity and relationships, revealing opportunities for connection with memories of loved ones. Brandi shares the significance of rituals in the grieving process and offers practical tools to cope with loss. Throughout, they emphasize that grief is a non-linear journey that requires embracing pain and compassion, ultimately leading to personal growth and healing.
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insights INSIGHT
Grief and Identity
Grief involves losing not just the person, but also a part of our identity tied to them.
This can be the identity of a child, partner, or friend, changing who we are.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Grandmother's Dignity
Brandy shares how her grandmother saw her with unique dignity, even when Brandy wasn't presenting herself well.
This highlights how the deceased can shape our identity and self-worth.
insights INSIGHT
Shifting Identities
When someone dies, we occupy a new identity shaped by the loss.
This new identity integrates the absence into our present and future selves.
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In 'The AfterGrief,' Hope Edelman explores the enduring nature of loss, challenging the common assumption that grief should be time-limited. Drawing on personal experiences and interviews with numerous individuals, Edelman offers guidance on reassessing loss and finding new purpose in its wake. The book emphasizes that while grief is a lifelong process, it doesn't have to be a lifelong struggle.
When Breath Becomes Air
E. Z. - Reader
In this profoundly moving memoir, Paul Kalanithi chronicles his transformation from a medical student to a neurosurgeon at Stanford, and finally to a patient confronting his own mortality. Diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at 36, Kalanithi grapples with fundamental philosophical questions about what makes a life worth living in the face of death. The book is a reflection on the challenge of facing death and the relationship between doctor and patient, written with eloquence and intelligence. Kalanithi's writing delves into his lifelong love of literature and his attempt to connect the sciences and humanities to gain a greater understanding of humanity.
The Grieving Brain
The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss
Mary-Frances O'Connor
In *The Grieving Brain*, neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD, offers a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. The book addresses why it’s hard to understand that a loved one has died, why grief causes various emotions, why grieving takes so long, the distinction between grief and prolonged grief, why we ruminate after loss, and how to restore a meaningful life while grieving. Based on O’Connor’s trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and real-life stories, the book combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge to help navigate loss with more ease and grace.
After the loss of someone we love, we’re inevitably faced with the question, “How do I live with this grief?” In this episode of “Something to Normalize,” Ginny and Brandi offer some answers to this question. Through research and personal experiences with grief, they share strategies, powerful bits of wisdom, and practical tools they’ve discovered. They also discuss how they’ve applied these tools in their own lives, and what was most helpful in their process. This is the second in a two-part series on grieving. Click here to listen to part 1.
In This Episode, Ginny & Brandi Discuss:
How grief is more than just the loss of a person; it is also the loss of our identity as it relates to that person
What opportunities grief offers us— like forming a new relationship with the memories of a loved one
How rituals can have an important role in helping us process our grief
Ways to navigate the ever-changing nature of grief
The One You Feed 
