GRIEF WORK
June 20, from “Strengthening My Recovery” daily reader
“Grief work can take many forms and can bring some of the greatest rewards of the program. Some grief work involves journaling in which we write about incidents in our life and reflect on the feelings we had at that moment.” BRB p. 202
“We ignored our grief because it did not seem like it belonged to us. For years, we didn’t feel we had permission to feel sad or to experience loss. In our families we were taught to not talk, not trust, and not feel. No one ever sat us down and told us that explicitly, but we knew that was the rule.
One of the tools we use in recovery is the art of journaling all of the things we’ve been holding in for so long in order to help us get in touch with our Inner Child. An effective writing variation is the non-dominant handwriting exercise described in the Big Red Book. It is a powerful way of getting clues to stored trauma in our bodies. We allow that hurt to surface and provide ourselves the space to heal, to cry, to bleed, to sob, to laugh and to experience the joy we were robbed of as children and even adults. It’s one of the ways we get to the other side of our grief.
On this day I will make time to journal about my feelings as a way of expressing the grief I hold from my childhood.”
My Experience:
I journal, I write, I have even published a book of poetry that is a journal of my struggle called, “A Gladiator’s Journey.” What a wonderful tool this has been to get to and express the grief that has been inside me for so very long. Here is some grief that I tapped into that is included in A Gladiator’s Journey By Brian Coates
Shattered
The crack of the whip began at a tender age
Ensuing years bore attempts to corner and cage
In the quest to pursue some other kind
You are not enough my mind would opine
The resiliency was solid through this adversity I faced
The protection of armor as I walked through the place
Although the fight was valiant, I have been broken at last
No more arrows to fire and no more rocks to cast
I no longer answer to Kunta Kinte, to this I vow
As I hang from the gallows, call me Toby now
Like Leonidas, in defeat I lay down my shield
Revealing my underbelly of which I now yield
For the definitive fatal blow for you to give
And then rip it right out of me as I can no longer live
I have been beaten into submission and I can take no more
Only God knows now what lies in store
The weakness is now exposed for you to see
I need you to express this last breath out of me
For it pains me to be this broken man
Please, I beg of you, make it as quick as you can
Blog: www.bkcoates.com
Instagram: bkcoates
Facebook: brian coates
Twitter: @cornbread182