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Hello Family, I just uploaded the new Widow's Grief-Shaming™ Awareness Mini Checklist. Head over to the Grief-Shaming™ Stops Here tab to download your copy. Grief is universal, so many of these points may resonate with your own journey or someone you support. My goal is to help all of us recognize Grief-Shaming™ and stop it in its tracks, so grievers can heal without having their progress reset. To everyone with a broken heart today, You're here now, your healing is on the way. You WILL get through this. You're here now, your healing is on the way. After you complete the checklist, please come back to this post to share your thoughts, questions, or personal stories in the comments.

Grief-Shaming Stops Here. Grief is universal. Change begins with awareness. Please put a comment in the "General Discussion Tab" after you complete the tool. You WILL get through this!

Welcome. I’m Carolyn J. Lockett, a widow who created this community to help other widows and grieving people navigate grief, recognize grief-shaming, protect their peace, and rediscover who they are becoming after loss. Here, you’ll receive practical tools and support to help you move from simply surviving toward rebuilding your life with purpose, emotionally, personally, and, when you’re ready, through new possibilities such as education, career, business, ministry, or other dreams you may want to pursue. You are grieving, but your life is not over. There is still more of YOU to discover. Let’s begin with something that can quietly interfere with that journey: grief-shaming. Grief-Shaming: The act of intentionally or unintentionally pressuring a grieving person to minimize, hide, dismiss, rush, or explain their grief to make others more comfortable. I didn’t understand what was happening to me when people asked: · How are you doing? · Are you dating yet? It’s been two years. · Did you donate his clothes yet? · What happened to him? How did he die? Even when people meant well, some questions left me feeling broken, overwhelmed, exposed, and pressured to move through grief the way they expected me to. I often questioned whether I was grieving “right.” I had never been a widow before. How was I supposed to know? There is no road map for how to be a widow. One day, in prayer, God gave me a name for what I was experiencing: grief-shaming. I want to share that revelation with you, so you won’t have to struggle to understand what is happening to you the way I did. Grief-shaming happens when a grieving person is made to feel judged, rushed, dismissed, or somehow wrong for how they grieve or how long they grieve. Recognizing grief-shaming doesn’t heal grief by itself. It helps remove obstacles to grief recovery. Have you ever experienced something like this? #GriefShamingStopsHere #DefendersOfGrief #GriefSupport

Advocating. Validating. Educating. Protecting. People Navigating Grief-Shaming. Grief-shaming has been happening for generations, but many people experiencing it have never had a name for it. Just as other movements (ME TOO or MADD) have given a name to harm that used to go unnamed, we are naming this one, grief-shaming, so we can finally address it. When we name what is happening, we can recognize it, talk about it, and begin to change it. Defenders of Grief is a growing community of people committed to changing the way the world responds to grief. We learn to recognize grief-shaming, validate the grieving person, educate others, speak up when appropriate, and help protect a person's right to grieve on their own timeline. You don't have to be a widow. You may be a friend, family member, faith leader, professional, business owner, caregiver,or simply someone who believes grieving people deserve compassion, dignity, patience, and support. Your voice can help change the conversation. Join us. Become a Defender of Grief. Click the link below to JOIN for FREE. https://www.skool.com/widowsofdestiny/about https://www.skool.com/widowsofdestiny/-/rules