grief – The Self-Help Whisperer®

If you’re looking for a quick-fix for your shame, Soul Without Shame by Byron Brown is NOT it. Not that it’s a difficult read – it isn’t – but that it’s heavy…

From My Bookshelf

The Light Between Us – Paper Thin

21 Jun 20219 Feb 2023

“Picture a hand with five fingers. Each finger is distinct, but each finger also connects to the same source—the hand itself. The fingers are separate, but connected. We as humans…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – On Grief and Grieving

12 May 2021

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and…

From My Bookshelf

The Year of Magical Thinking – Beauty & The Book

10 Apr 20219 Feb 2023

“A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.” - Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking is a STUNNING and significant work by prolific writer…

Self-Help Whispering

Grief 101: Recover from Grief Website

23 Mar 20219 Feb 2023

I miss my dad. I find myself trying not to think about him because whenever I do, I'm sobbing. I know how very lucky and blessed I was to have…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – Forgive & Forget

6 Mar 2021

“If we wait to forgive people until they say they are sorry we make ourselves hostages to the very person who wronged us to begin with…” – Lewis B. Smedes Forgive…

From My Bookshelf

Wintering – Life’s grimalkin, no more!

21 Dec 20209 Feb 2023

"Watching winter and really listening to its messages, we learn that effect is often disproportionate to cause; that tiny mistakes can lead to huge disasters; that life is often bloody…

Interviews

Teaser for Upcoming Interview – Kathryn: Light & Dark (Shadows, that is!)

21 Nov 20209 Feb 2023

We first met Kathryn Leigh Scott here in my post about her beautiful book Now With You Now Without . As I mentioned in that post, I had more questions and…

From My Bookshelf

Now With You Now Without – The Question

9 Nov 20209 Feb 2023

My friend Roger told me about this book. Can I just stop for a moment and gush on serendipity? If it weren't for my dearest, long-time friend Betsy, who saved…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – Resilience

5 Nov 2020

In her final words, she said that “in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days…

Photography…

Picture of the Day – A Haiku- “Hello darkness, my old friend”

1 Nov 20201 Nov 2020

Alone with his thoughts Deep inside his hoodie world The darkness lives there.

Self-Help Whispering

Stairway- A Haiku

12 Aug 202012 Aug 2020

Everyone I love Is somewhere along the way Bright light on both sides.

From My Bookshelf

Healing the Child Within – For Crying Out Loud!

3 Aug 20209 Feb 2023

Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear for I wear a mask, a thousand masks, masks that I'm afraid to take off, and none…

From My Bookshelf

It Still Hurts – A light read for a heavy problem

23 Jul 20209 Feb 2023

This blog space is filled with life experiences, stories, and books that deal with grief. It is not a new subject for me or anyone else. It's our human experience.…

Self-Help Whispering

Haiku – “Grief”

23 Mar 2020

Condensation, or weeping woman, misty-eyed Thought I saw you there.

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – How to Live Between Office Visits

8 Feb 20208 Feb 2020

Faith is the health's requisite - John Updike, from "Ode to Healing" It was an act of faith that led me to buy this book... because... as a person with…

From My Bookshelf

Lessons in Loss and Living – What would you do if you didn’t know better?

7 Dec 20199 Feb 2023

Oh yes, our old friend grief... again. *sigh* I typed "grief" into the search field of my blog and got this list. You can look if you want. I'll wait.…

Photography

Picture of the Day -“Yesterday”

1 Dec 20191 Dec 2019

Today, ice is thick on the roads and tree branches. Power-cutting, dangerous, bone-chilling. But yesterday, it looked like this. A day can make a stunning difference. My former brother-in-law died…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – Use the Good Dishes

4 Jul 20199 Feb 2023

My friend Debbie died today. We were very close when we were younger, in our twenties. She introduced me to my first husband. She was an honorary “Auntie” to my…

From My Bookshelf

Fiction as Self-Help – Turtles All The Way Down – Never has there been a more appropriate book for the Fiction as Self-Help Category!

20 Jun 201915 Sep 2021

I almost don't know where to begin. Turtles All The Way Down is by the same guy (John Green) who wrote The Fault in our Stars, which I didn't read…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – The Things You Would Have Said

22 May 20199 Feb 2023

The Things You Would Have Said by Jackie Hooper is a stunning little book. Under two hundred pages, it doesn’t need more words to get the point across. The best things…

Self-Help Whispering

Ghost Whisperer – What festers below the surface?

18 May 20199 Feb 2023

It will not surprise you to know that during 2014: My Year of Pain I gravitated toward mostly-spiritual television. I've already talked about Being Erica. Today, I will be talking about…

From My Bookshelf

New Beginnings – It’s time.

23 Apr 20199 Feb 2023

When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. - Ann Morrow Lindbergh New Beginnings by Betty Jane Wylie has been sitting quietly on my…

Self-Help Whispering

DON’T GO THERE! (This flies in the face of everything I’ve read about healing trauma)

21 Apr 20195 Sep 2022

As many of you know, my mother is a Dr. Mom (Ph.D. Jungian therapist) and I respect her immensely. She has been my guru and my muse on many-a-post(s) here.…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – Fearless Living

18 Apr 20199 Feb 2023

Many years ago, I attended an in-service at the college where I worked. It was one of those “pick one of these and attend or don’t bother coming back to…

From My Bookshelf

You Don’t Look Your Age… and Other Fairy Tales – “This happened to me, learn from it!”

9 Apr 20199 Oct 2019

You Don't Look Your Age... and Other Fairy Tales by Sheila Nevins is a book after my own heart. In fact, it could have been written by me. It wasn't! But it…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – How long does grieving last?

15 Mar 2019

I was driving to work this morning, praying. I will be honest in saying that prayer no longer comes naturally to me. I used to pray a lot. Not so…

From My Bookshelf

A Series – The Tapping Solution – Part 2

12 Mar 20199 Feb 2023

This (probably/obviously) follows up A Series – The Tapping Solution – Part 1. The Tapping Solution by Nick Ortner is an amazing book and program. That said, I have a confession... and it pains…

From My Bookshelf

Healing Crystals and Gemstones – Healer or Amateur Geologist, you’ll like it!

25 Feb 20199 Feb 2023

My friend Bonney presented this book to me in the year I'd like to forget, 2014. I know this because she inscribed it: "To my gem of a friend"... and…

From My Bookshelf

Toxic Friends – Falling to pieces

31 Jan 201920 Jul 2021

Men seem to kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it as glass and it goes to pieces. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh Toxic Friends…

Interviews

Interview – Penny Rose Mixhau: Creator, Philosopher, Human

31 Dec 20189 Feb 2023

You first heard about Penny in my shameless teaser about her. As I was putting this post together, I stumbled while writing the headline. Penny Rose Mixhau on Being a…

From My Bookshelf

Necessary Losses – There’s that word again: Expectations

21 Dec 20189 Oct 2019

“There comes a time when we aren't allowed not to know.” ― Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of us Have I'd say the time is…

From My Bookshelf

On Grief and Grieving – Rebuilding yourself around the loss

10 Dec 20189 Oct 2019

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and…

From My Bookshelf

Forgive & Forget – Forget? I think not!

16 Nov 20189 Oct 2019

“If we wait to forgive people until they say they are sorry we make ourselves hostages to the very person who wronged us to begin with...” - Lewis B. SmedesForgive &…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – Her Name, Titanic

13 Nov 2018

My love of all-things Titanic began when I was a child. My grandparents had one of those pictorial history books that Life Magazine put out. It was a coffee table book; hard-cover, glossy and…

Interviews

Interview – Joshua Black on loss, grief and dreaming

12 Oct 20189 Feb 2023

Joshua Black is a youthful, academic researcher and oddly enough (and at the very same time!) a wise, elder Sage. I called him a Grief-Dream Whisperer in my teaser about this…

Interviews

Teaser for Upcoming Interview – Josh: You may say he’s a grief dreamer

7 Oct 20189 Feb 2023

Hey, you guys... you're gonna love my next interview! What can I say about a young man with an old soul who I only met because of serendipity? Several years…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – The Power of Pets

24 Sep 20189 Feb 2023

Originally posted November 1, 2017 One of the greatest things about a blog like this is the ability to share something very close to my heart… by someone close to my…

From My Bookshelf

The Heart of Remarriage – Do what I say, not what I did!

23 Jun 20189 Oct 2019

To be clear, I never thought I'd be part of these statistics: In the U.S., 50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second, and 74% of third marriages end in divorce. Second marriages have difficulty for…

If you have a medical or mental health emergency, call your doctor or 911.

Nothing contained in this blog (The Self-Help Whisperer®) is intended to establish or replace a physician-patient relationship or services.

If you are IN CRISIS and NEED TO TALK but don’t know who to call…

In USA: Mental Health America In Crisis? Call 1-800-273-TALK

Or elsewhere in the world – By Country, as compiled by Wikipedia

Suicide hotline numbers

Someone dies from suicide every 40 seconds

United States 1 800 273 8255

Canada 1 800 456 4566