TWO INTRODUCTORY GROUP SESSIONS
FOR AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
Offering You:
Simple practices and enlightened perspectives to awaken the creative potential within death, dying, grief and loss
The practice of transforming grief and loss into new life is vitally important work for our time. Facing into our own death and dying is potentially a pathway which holds the power not only to renew you and me as individuals but also to heal and renew our world.
Introducing the Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations
This is a Collection of Written and Audio Learning Resources in 6 parts:
Introduction
1. Essential Skills for Grieving Well
2. Transforming Loss
3. Death and the Soul Journey
4. Grieving for our World
5. Choosing Life.
These are stimulus materials designed to support Inquiry, Exploration and Discovery. They will touch, move and encourage you to connect more fully with your own experience and authentic truth. Through reflecting on my own grieving and through conversations with 25 diverse healing practitioners, I pose the question:
How may we transform grief and loss into wholeness and creative power through the practice of Sitting with Death and Choosing Life?
Now I invite you to join me in this adventure of discovery and exploration.
The Vision:
The current global pandemic is sending shock waves around the world as we face the reality of our own mortality, the death of loved ones, loss of income and freedoms we have taken for granted, and major changes to lifestyle. Most people to do not have the understandings or skills to support themselves through fear or know how to use intense emotions creatively. My greatest wish in delivering these learning resources is that they will stimulate a new wave of readiness to embrace the grieving process as an opportunity for self-healing, healthy self-nurturing and self-love. By doing so we will arrive, as a species, at a place of greater acceptance of all aspects of our humanity. This in turn will lead to greater tolerance, compassion and commitment to life.
I envision the Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations being used throughout the UK (and elsewhere) to bring people together in local and virtual community groups for exploratory conversations into death, dying, grief and loss. The conversations will build positive connections, empower people with simple skills, and change attitudes and lives for the better. They will seed understandings about emotional health, mental and physical well-being, and spiritual purpose which will then spread throughout the culture and transform it.
A Welcome Message:
Click here to listen…
Intentions and Purposes of the Training:
I would love to connect with those of you who are, or who want to be:
- Bringing people together in local and virtual community groups for exploratory conversations into death, dying, grief and loss;
- Supporting and facilitating others through their deep healing journeys and the skills of transformation;
- Working with communities to create personal and community resilience;
- Committed to serving the emergence of an integrated, unity consciousness and a new paradigm culture for a sane, humane and resilient humanity and a healthy planet.
I invite you to meet with me and a like-hearted group for two sessions to explore and to enhance your understanding and skills in the following ways:
- To raise awareness of the importance of facing death, dying, grief and loss as part of a process of individual and community healing, wholeness, resiliency and evolution;
- To introduce enlightened perspectives and understandings, along with simple skills and practices, which could make all the difference to people struggling with losses during COVID 19 and thereafter;
- To reduce the fear arising now by normalising death and presenting dying in a bigger spiritual and humanitarian context;
- To plant the seed that we can only fully choose life – individually and collectively – when we are willing and able to face into our own mortality or “sit with death”. This has significant implications for how we go forward from here, our relationship with nature and the planet, and how we build a new humane culture.
After the Introductory Training you may choose to join the Facilitator Training for a Transformational Journey with a team of co-creators who share a heart-centred mission to take this work out into your Communities. (Contact me on the form below for more information.)
Some understandings that underlie this practice:
Death and dying, loss and grief are natural parts of being human which have been sadly neglected in our society with tragic results.
We all lose people we love through separation or death. We all learn, at one time or another, to cope with and manage changes in our bodies, deteriorating health in ourselves and in our loved ones. We all grow old and infirm and face the approach of our own dying. We all experience failure and disillusionment and lose sight of cherished dreams. We are all, at times, overwhelmed and broken-hearted by devastating changes in our world and loss of faith in our existing power systems. And, for those on a conscious spiritual path and in the process of transformation, losing illusions about the self and throwing off outworn identities is intrinsic to the path, a sign of progress – and very challenging!
Our culture encourages us to avoid grief and intense emotion – and there’s a huge cost to this avoidance.
Amidst our current state of global upheaval we are in an epidemic of unprocessed grief. This is undermining our health and our ability to act creatively to bring about positive change. We all live with a pervasive state of loss which encompasses the loss of nature, of any sense of stability, and sometimes of hope itself. Yet often this loss is not fully acknowledged or experienced but pushed out of the way so life can go on.
As long as we are not allowing and accepting the death and dying parts of the natural cycle we are not fully available for life. This is a tragic waste.
It takes time and conscious intent to grieve well.
Healing unfolds in its own time and, in our busy western world our culture is not very understanding or allowing of the grieving process, or of emotions in general. Healing requires time, space and quiet introspection and these are often judged as self-indulgent. Other than the funeral, we have no cultural rituals to celebrate death as a natural part of the life cycle. Even talking about death may be regarded as morbid. And, for many people, the expression of strong emotions is seen as a shameful weakness to be hidden away in private.
When we push aside the strong emotions of grief, mental, emotional and physical ill-health follow.
The consequences of neglecting or avoiding the deeply hurting self are considerable and can even be life threatening. Whenever you attempt to suppress the pain of grieving and turn back the tide of emotions, you contract the body and literally harden the heart. The energy of grief has nowhere to go and becomes trapped and stored in the cells where it silently wreaks havoc with your physical, emotional and mental health. Life involves many losses, and whatever has not been completed and released piles on top of the last unexamined grief, making it even harder to approach. So you avoid it and stuff it all down even more. Many of the major diseases of our time – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, eating disorders, addictions of all kinds, suicide – have their origins in unprocessed emotions and grief. That’s how important this is.
Grief tends to isolate.
In challenging times, it is common to feel painfully isolated and separated from everything and everyone which previously gave your life meaning.Even if you are normally a highly skilled and resourceful person, someone who serves and leads others, in grief we are always beginners and, where you used to be empowered, you may now find yourself floundering. When loss takes your life apart and strips you to the bone, it’s quite common to feel at the mercy of a scary, heart-breaking and all-consuming process, for which you are completely unprepared.
Avoiding grief and the inevitability of death also has devastating effects on relationships, community and planetary life.
The widespread social fear of death, and distrust of the inner world and the emotions, keeps us limited, self-interested and disempowered – a species disconnected from our innate wisdom and caring. The resulting wilful destruction of life on our planet is insane, suicidal behaviour. As mounting global crisis awakens us to the dangers there is a growing recognition that we need to adopt skills and practices that enable change from the inside out.
Challenging life experiences – particularly a meeting with death – provide the best opportunities to become more aware of, to move through, and to let go of limiting beliefs, emotional contractions in the body, and behaviour patterns that have caused you repeated suffering. When we face death, the veils between the dimensions of self and world open, and we are drawn beyond the protections we have spun around ourselves, deep into the Soulful world. As we look more deeply than normal into the mysteries of life and death we are bound to question to what extent we are fulfilling our life purpose and promise, as well as wondering what happens to us when we die and where our beloved has gone. Because our daily reality is shaken and deconstructed, and we are more than usually vulnerable, the healing work can progress.
THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!
The Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations support you to fully open to the life-giving opportunities present within grief and to move through loss to completion and integration of the gifts.
These learning resources offer skills, understandings, maps of the territory, and opportunities to explore with like-hearted companions.
When you practice grieving well and face into the fear, avoidance, isolation and shame that eat away at confidence and health, you can bring death, dying and loss out of the shadows . You will find relief from isolation, move forward on more solid ground, and naturally choose to live more fully.
We are a Tribe in Transition Moving through a Global Paradigm Shift which Affects Us on Every Level of Being.
There are many now who understand that a transformation of consciousness is at the heart of creating a world that cherishes and protects life. What is so exciting about this unpredictable and turbulent time is that the glaring need to change how we live is creating a new culture in which healing, wholeness and becoming more conscious, are prime values.
The Process of Transformation Requires Simple Practices Repeated Consistently.
The old paradigm thinking that drives the destruction of life, lives within our psyches and compromises our actions, until we make it conscious. The old painful beliefs and behaviours repeat and give rise to suffering. They are so deeply conditioned, and so much a part of you, you can’t see them and don’t even know they’re there. Simple skills applied consistently will support you to become increasingly aware of these limitations. As you progress along the road to healing and wholeness, it is possible to see through the old conditioning and to shed it. As you release the old conditioning you also let go of your old identity which has kept you feeling unworthy and lacking. Now you can co-operate with your natural healing process as you move forward on your path to wholeness.
As you commit to daily, simple practices which bring these limiting patterns into awareness and release them, a new inner space is created, in which you can more easily hear your own authentic truth and connect with your deeper wisdom. No matter how personal your painful emotions, you recognise these are not yours alone but shared by the human species. This awareness releases you from the lonely prison of suffering into a growing compassion and realisation of the essential interconnectedness of all life. You are then free to choose to follow your own authentic direction and commit to making your unique contribution to sacred life on our planet. Those of us who have chosen at a Soul level to be healers of whatever kind are seizing the opportunity, and arising to the challenge, to contribute to the awakening of our species into this new level of interconnected consciousness which I call Whole Mind-Whole World.
Repeated Practice Grounds You in Your Essential Self.
As you hold all your emotions in the crucible of your body, feel them fully, trust and surrender to their power, witness and accept your experience, the core of your essential self grows lighter and more resilient.
It is the bedrock of the essential self that will see you through any crisis, not the shifting sands of the personality. This makes grief a powerful pathway to living a more enlightened life.
The Support and Community of a Safe, Intentional Group Accelerates Transformation and Brings You Out of Isolation and into Community and Co-creation.
This transition is a journey we each take within our own heart. As we start talking with each other openly, honestly and vulnerably, together we can share, explore and bring into the light of consciousness all aspects of our humanity. Although your healing journey will unfold in a way unique to you, connecting with like-hearted others for Deep Discovery Conversations provides the reassurance you are not alone. We all move forward more easily upheld by the bigger energy and consciousness of the group.
I hope these Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations will be a spark to light the fire for conversations that will connect caring, wise, co-creative, life-centred communities.
As we release our fear of death, and along with it, our fear of the imperfections which live in the shadows of the psyche, we come into a bigger acceptance of the natural cycles and movement of life. Our centre of knowing drops down from the intellect, where we try to control life, and into the body. As we begin to live fully in the body, knowing becomes grounded in the heart. This is where we know that all life is interconnected and we are held in the interconnected cycles and dance of life.
This new knowing is not only life-changing for the individual but, as more and more of us choose to walk through this doorway of opportunity, our expanded and enlightened consciousness changes the world. We desperately need a new compassionate culture on our planet which recognises the interconnectedness of all life and cares for the greater wholes of which we are part. As each individual takes responsibility to learn how to befriend intense emotions and to grieve well, this could make all the difference to the future of the world in which we live.
Whether you are in grief, supporting others through loss, keenly affected by global losses, or you simply want to deepen your understanding of these crucial aspects of being human,
I invite you to join me in a TWO SESSION INTRODUCTORY TRAINING through which you can explore these vulnerable aspects of our shared humanity and enhance your skills
The Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations provide the support and skills to:
- Practice sitting with, and developing a kinder relationship, with death, dying, grief and loss;
- Become active in shaping your healing, even when you are feeling fragmented;
- Face into the heart of your pain to release unnecessary suffering;
- Make friends with all your emotions including the most intense and difficult;
- Co-operate with the transformational power within grief and loss;
- Let go of old, limiting beliefs and habits;
- Transform loss into new, vibrant life choices;
- Develop a common language for the demanding process of transition and transformation;
- Connect more fully with your authentic wisdom, your inner knowing and unique path;
- Recover your authentic self, discover the gifts buried in the heart of your deepest challenges, and realise your humanity more fully;
- Master your creative process and deliver your gifts by making conscious choices, combined with intention, experimental action and consistency,
- Find your true home and place of belonging as you enlarge the community of self and connect with the community of all beings
When it comes to grief we never step into the same river twice. And no two people’s grieving experiences are ever exactly the same. In that sense, we are always beginners. This is also true of our great love experiences and our spiritual epiphanies. Every experience that lifts us out of our fixed views of reality, is completely unexpected and takes us into new and unknown territory. At the same time these psycho-spiritual states are archetypal and we know them in our cells. They bring a disruption that every soul longs for because from this disruption a new dawn of consciousness can break.
Rose Diamond skilfully and insightfully identifies the depth & complexities of loss in a clearly recognizable way. She paints familiar heartscapes, and the eloquence and fullness of her words unlocked my paralysed being as I picked up all the pieces of a shattered life, following the death of my son. She gave life and a voice to the death I feel inside. Rose writes in a wholeheartedly honest way sensitively reflecting a wealth of knowledge and personal experience. It is this deep, experiential perspective that connects me to my own experience of grief and loss and its expression. Sitting with Death provided an anchor, a lifeline like point of reference in the navigation of my shattered world and a reminder that the relentless pain/journey of grief and loss can lead to growth and transformation if the process is allowed to unfold organically. Rose’s work with grief, loss and transformation has helped fill a great void left by the pain & suffering of losing a child and enabled me to embrace life in a much more authentic way and to dare to feel hope again. – Margie Austin, Kinesiologist.
Sign up for the Transforming Grief and Loss Introductory Group Sessions Now
What you can expect:
Prior to our first meeting I will send you a copy of:
The Introduction to The Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Conversations.
This is a 40 page e-book containing stimulus materials intended to:
- Support inquiry and deep reflection;
- Touch into your own experience of grief and loss and encourage you to connect more fully with your authentic wisdom, inner knowing and unique path.
- Develop shared understandings and a common language for the skills of transformation.
Contents:
9 Ways to Co-operate with the Natural Movement of Grief
A Meditation for Cultivating Whole Mind Whole World
Conversation 1: Transformation, Community and the Transition to Wholeness
12 Essential Aspects of the Transformational Process
A Meditation for Cultivating Connection
Conversation 2: Embracing Your Inevitable Death
Why we Fear Death and Dying
A Process for Transforming Fear
Questions for Inquiry and Next Steps
Two Group Meetings
After you have had time to read, listen and take time for your own inquiry, we will meet as a group for 2 x 2.5 hour sessions. This will be in a safe intentional space, where you can explore what has been touched in you. It will be a small group of no more than 12 participants, giving everyone a chance to speak, discover and weave the conversation.
Session One, on Thursday August 6 at 5.30pm AEST and 7.30pm NZ
This will be a Deep Discovery Conversation exploring What it Means to Grieve Well.
Session Two on Thursday August 13 at 5.30pm AEST and 7.30pm NZ
We will explore the The Gifts of Grief .
(If you are keen and these times don’t work for you, please contact me on the form below.)
If you are interested in the Sitting with Death and Choosing Life Facilitator Training
If you can’t make these times, please contact me on the form below about the Facilitator Training and I will keep you informed.
The choice for fully lived life appears to be just as risky and courageous as facing death. Much of the time most of us live in a nether region, somewhere between life and death, and yet rarely experiencing either state fully. A confrontation with death can pull back the veils of habit, comfort and consensual reality and leave us raw, naked and vulnerable. Within this hyper-sensitive state lies a precious opportunity to move beyond our personal history into the deepest heart of what it means to be human.
Rose Diamond is a wonderful example of facing your fears and doing it anyway, and of walking your walk and guiding others to do the same. She teaches us how to create lives that enable us to live as freely and fully as we wish – literally to walk beyond our fears. Rose has extensive knowledge and skills to bring to anyone transitioning through challenging times who is ready to make shifts in consciousness, and to coaches and teachers in the arena of cutting edge human development to enable them to support their clients to new levels of brilliance. – Jackie, The Soul Journey.