We know that grief can affect our emotional health – but did you know that it may also have profound physical effects?
A recent study led by Murray Mittleman, MD, at the Harvard School of Public Health found that the risk of heart attack may increase dramatically after the loss of a loved one.
The day after the death of someone close to them, patients who had already survived one heart attack were 2100% more likely to have a second heart attack than those who had not experienced this loss.
Of course, the chances aren’t as high for someone who has never had a heart attack before, but the risk still increases.
The link between major grief and serious illness might not be all that surprising, but even small day-to-day griefs and disappointments can take a toll.
Knowing how to respond instead of react to the hurts and disappointments we encounter in daily life may help to reduce their harmful effect on our mind and body.
We’ve created a short 3 minute video with Stephen and Ondrea Levine, sharing their wisdom on how these “little griefs” can weigh us down – and how learning to let go can allow us to live a more fulfilling life.
Have you witnessed the physical effects of “little griefs”? Please leave a comment below.
Yes, of course this is true about the increase in heart attack after the death of a loved one – in the old days it was said that ‘s/he died of a broken heart’ we now know this to be true….
As an oncology nurse, experiencing ‘liittle griefs’ is an everyday occurrence for myself and co-workers. Learning to deal with this and maintain adequate self care is required to continue with
this work. Hearing how others who deal with similar issues is very helpful.
This will be an interesting discussion.
PS
I know this does not belong here but I just completed the Mindfulness series and
completed the post-test. Would like to receive CEU’s but have misplaced user
name and password – would you pls direct me to the proper location to obtain
these?
Thanks
Your Wednesday lectures are not coming through to my Word XP on your new system. I checked as you suggested and was told it cannot be changed
What lieiartbng knowledge. Give me liberty or give me death.
Your lectures are not coming in on your new system. I checked as you suggested and I cannot change my XP.
Hi Noreen – I’m sorry you’re having difficulty with the Wednesday lectures. If you could let us know a few more details, we would be happy to help you troubleshoot it.
Please give us a call at 860-456-1153.
YELLOWYou are very perceptive and smart. You are clear and to the point and have a great sense of humor. You are alwyas learning and searching for understanding.(But these quizzes really just show what you see yourself as or what you would like to be, given those options. Its only who you are to a point.)
So true. The subtleties of disregard or rejection really wear people down.
Yes, I agree totally that delaing with grief ic SOOO important! Have seen this repeatedly in working with all conditions. Working with The Paw Paw Program for cancer, the emotional healing component must be addressed for best results.
After spending 8 and 1/2 years raising my granddaughter, she is now living with wonderful foster parents,
and while I think this is definitely best for her, I have never felt so alone. I had totally devoted my life to her almost exclusively, and I wonder if that was the best thing for ME to do. She was light and life, laughter and joy to me. I will go on because I am a determined person who does nor give up, but I’m
wondering how to get through this time of separation. Friends tell me to keep myself busy, and that is only helpful somewhat. The loss and sadness keep popping up and I do not want to push them away
because I think that might cause more problems for me as time goes on. When does working through your feelings of grief end? I’ve heard things take time, and maybe that is enough. Just trust that they will pass………………
Blue’s not my favorite color, but it’s the color peolpe say I look best it…I think of myself as a red or an orange but evidently, I’m wrong. Although, I’m not a designer (I’m a scientist) but what is opposite on the color wheel? Maybe if you see orange, peolpe see the opposite???
The webinar with the Levines looks wonderful, but I also found that the link to sign up doesn’t work.
Hello Tracy,
I’m sorry you had trouble signing up.
We were experiencing technical difficulties with the link this weekend – it should be working now. Please click here to sign up.
Thank you very much for your series, focusing on spirituality. I’d like to take the opportunity to say how important psychosynthesis – founded by Dr Roberto Assagioli, has been in me life- in the healing of my own existencial crisis. Psychosynthesis is a direction of psychology that sees a person’s spiritual needs just as important as its physical, emotional and intellectual needs. Assagioli integrated many of the Eastern methods into the tradional Western psychology, including mediation, affirmations and imagery. But first and foremost he recognized the importance of needs of the soul and spread awareness about the resulting depression and anxiety that could be caused by “suppression of the sublime”.
Hi Your links do not work. They take you to having to sign up for a whole lecture series. Is this 3 minute video really FREE or do we need to sign up for a lecture series? Not clear. Thank you ahead of time for clarifying.
Thank you.
Hi Karen,
I’m sorry you had trouble signing up.
We were experiencing technical difficulties with the link this weekend – it should be working now. You can sign up here.
I practice Asian Bodywork Therapies and Energy Psychology as well as being a shaman and spiritual coach. I work with people everyday to unwind the entrenched patterns of trauma, pain and grief held in the body tissues and energetic matrix.
I am well aware of how negative energy effects health. I have read Stephen’s books and they have always been influential in my approach. After seeing this clip I realized in a new way how not only the obvious but also the little things add up, This has given me a new perspective and approach to work with the clients who feel something is “wrong” but have had no significant trauma that they can pinpoint.
I would like to see severe postpartum depression explored, especially when the sufferer is away from family and extended social networks. I mean the Crisis Phase-when the person’s extreme grief and depression and guilt is all the more desperate and tied up in knots over not being available to nurture the baby the way the heart is desperate to do.
I have seen this in my practice and to be truthful, medication was greatly beneficial to support therapy.
Actually, this great series (Thank you, Ruth ) has been a little short on the severe crisis phase- even including how to help the person avoid losing time from employment, etc. Although it is only one phase and not present in all depressions/anxieties, it is important to address.
Stephen and Ondrea have been an inspiration to me for years. When my life “broke apart”
the work of forgiveness and letting go became my primary focus.
I wrote and recorded a guided meditation CD called “Guided Imagery for Letting Go” to help me as well as my counseling clients who needed a “companion” to help them navigate the waters of healing from loss.
Thank you for including these wise experts on the power of grief. Their “soft belly” meditation is
a treasure.
The “little daily griefs” build in a depressed person until they form the “black fog” through which they can no longer see, hear, or feel love or appreciation, value. This is so evident in my son’s self-made anguished videos three years ago before he succumbed to suicide. He has taught me so much as a doctor of 23 years that I didn’t pay attention to until now. If we’d only listen to the survivors before it’s too late. I’ve always been an optimist and idealist, but this takes it to a whole new, day-to-day reality level. Understanding this concept will take us to the ability to eliminate suicide as a far too common occurrence in our society.
Thank you for your heart-full, insightful and tremendously important comment, Dr. George Patrin.
Your links to sign up for the “little griefs” webinar with the Levins do not work. Thanks and for all you do
Hello Sheila,
I’m sorry you had trouble signing up.
We were experiencing technical difficulties with the link this weekend – it should be working now. Please go here to sign up.
When you start to understand that everything is energy you can see how little griefs are bits of negative charged energy that found a place of like vibration in you. As one understand the law of attraction ,it easy to see how sickness begins in the body.