Laah Wallace is a writer and dreamer, a recovering social worker turned mushroom farmer and business consultant. Her personal and professional lives have been steeped in grief, each loss cumulative and heavy and left her floating and untethered after the loss of both parents and a sibling. As with the dynamism of loss and life, the grief waxes and wanes but is ever-present, now a welcome reminder of the collection of loves gained and loves transformed and the longing for a reconnection.

Laah is wildly passionate about earth offerings as a way to connect to our ancestors, our families, and each other. Childhood in a small, company town made an indelible splodge on the unfolding of her life, often peppered with periods of protest, hibernation, and nomadism. Her affair with the rise and lull of words began early, most assuredly bolstered by the condition of aphantasia--the inability to voluntarily make mental images. She enjoys turns of phrase, the blues, and lives for a gripping mystery.

Key Takeaways:

• Laah shares her grief story.
• In society we tend to praise people that hide their emotions, considering them as "strong".
• Usually, people don't know how to be empathetic with a grieving person.
• Laah and Susan talk about how different people grieve in different ways.
• Fear of mortality is often the cause for people denying the suffering involved in grieving.
• Death is inevitable but yet we don't teach people how to do it.
• Engage in relationships where grief and pain are topics of discussion.
• Groups are a great place to open up and hear yourself talking about your suffering, it has profound healing power.
• Don't compare yourself to another person grieving, each grieving journey is different.
• It is important to exercise our own self-control around other people's grief because it can come when we are not ready. We need to create our internal and external boundaries and hold our own boundaries. We need to be stable if we are going to support someone in his or her grieving journey.
• What is grief policing? Disagreeing about how someone is processing and experiencing grief.
• There is no normal in grieving, you can grieve in any way that feels good to you.
• We tend to idealize the "moving on" while grief always stays with us and becomes a part of who we are, there is no way of moving on from it.
• Grief is cumulative, each death sums up to the one that came before.
• Grieving can create an identity crisis, where you can doubt where your place in the world really is.
• Laah talks about mushroom micro and macro dosage and how it is revolutionizing the world of mental health. Experimenting with mushrooms and psychedelics can help to let go and let in, to connect, and to open the doors to spirituality.
• Lash recommends grieving people to be courageous and let their hearts break open and seek connection. Feel it, embrace it! Grief prepares us for our own deaths.

Resources

Tendrilsofgrief.com

Email Susan: [email protected]

Meet Laah Wallace

Connect with Laah on Linkedin

Email Laah at [email protected]