At one point, I could no longer hold it together anymore.

I could no longer pretend that I was “fine” or “good.” Two states I was so far from standing in that I couldn’t even remember what they felt like.

At a certain point, the only thing I could do was accept that my grief was just too big for me to hide inside my heart any longer.

The pain, the hurt, the heartache, and the anger needed to be felt and expressed.

Grief is unpleasant to witness for most people.
No one wants to see it, hear about it, or experience it. 

Everyone wants to hear that things are “going well.” It’s just easier for people to handle when we live in a society that never teaches how to process and heal—let alone FEEL—the more challenging emotions.

But I realized that if I was ever going to truly heal and find a new sense of wholeness… I had to stop pretending that everything was fine.

Nothing was fine… not after everything I’d been through. Not even close.

As I was losing the ground beneath my feet in a way that I’d never experienced before, I had to learn how to ride the waves of grief, every single time they hit me. WITHOUT holding back for the sake of someone else’s comfort. WITHOUT plastering over it with polished positivity. WITHOUT denying any aspect of my experience.

Had I done it any other way, I’m not sure I’d have survived it.

And I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today… happy, aligned, and in love with this little life of mine.

Stephenie Zamora is an author and life coach, business and marketing strategist, and founder of CallOfTheVoid.tv., where she merges the worlds of personal development, energy healing, intuitive coaching, writing, and mixed media art to help individuals rise up and come back from the darkest, hardest chapters of life. She guides her clients through the challenging process of re-orienting to their lives, relationships, and work in a way that’s fully aligned with who they’ve become in the aftermath of loss, trauma, depression, and big life changes. After struggling with PTSD, grief, and anxiety from a sudden and traumatic loss, she navigated her own difficult healing journey, and has set out to help others find the purpose of their own path using The Hero’s Journey as a framework. She is also the founder of Stephenie Zamora Media, the author of Awesome Life Tips®, creator of Journey Mapping Sessions™, and is currently working on a second book, Unravel. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post, Yahoo Shine, Elite Daily, Positively Positive, and many other publications over the years. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or at www.CallOfTheVoid.tv.