Summer solstice. Winter solstice. The longest and shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. When I imagine the four seasons, I often will envision the face of a round clock,...
Perspective, Resources and Community for However Long You’ve been Widowed
Every widowed experience is different, and yet the way the person you love died may influence how you grieve. At Soaring Spirits we've discovered that connecting with other people whose loved one died in the same way as yours offers a unique and powerful comfort as you move through your grief.
We Have a Widowed Person for That is a place to find others whose lives have been altered in some of the same ways as yours. Sudden loss, long or short term illness, suicide, accidents or deaths complicated by addiction or mental health struggles: this portion of our website offers videos, resources, books, and group connections that facilitate the exploration of topics unique to the type of death your love one experienced, and how that death experience influences your healing.
You will find friends here who get it, and who get you.
Widow. Widower. Widowed. After your spouse or partner dies, feeling that you are the only widowed person in the world is not unusual, but it can be terrifying. We can’t take away the pain you feel right now, but we can help. The community here at Soaring Spirits will offer you understanding, friendship, inspiration, and encouragement as you learn to live without your person.
Current research on life after loss can inform, educate and provide a framework for the widowed community as we rebuild our lives. Access resilience-based books, articles, podcasts, websites and videos which will provide powerful information to support your healing journey.
Join thousands of widowed men and women who meet in cities throughout the world, including Canada, Ireland and the United States. These groups help widowed people rebuild social networks that foster healing through community connection. Groups meet twice monthly and are led by Soaring Spirits trained volunteer facilitators.
Our document center includes important information for the newly widowed, general resources for widowed people, and information for their support networks. Click here for access to The Newly Widowed Checklist, Common Grief Reactions in Adults, The Widowhood Resilience Scale, 10 Ways to Ease Trauma, and many other supportive documents.
This uplifting, life-affirming, conference-style program (both live and virtual) allows widowed people to gather and create strong community connections with other widowed people. Weekend Camp Widow® events are held annually in San Diego, Tampa, and Toronto, and one day Pop-Up Camps are held in various locations throughout the world.
The Soaring Spirits library offers a collection of books written by authors with backgrounds in mental health; books by our Camp Widow presenters; books recommended by widowed peers, and books written by other widowed people. Each section title identifies the category that applies to the book you are viewing and provides details for purchase.
Our Widowed Pen Pal program will match you with another widowed person for one-on-one, supportive e-mail correspondence. The Widowed Pen Pal program was designed for those who would like to correspond with one person consistently, rather than join a group forum. For your safety, our procedure for matching pen pals includes verification of widowhood, which we process through our Widowed Village program.
Soaring Spirits International offers support, resources and community for widowed people around the world. Our Widowed Village program, which was created in 2010, has been accessed in 153 different countries, by tens of thousands of widowed people seeking solace in the comfort of a life-affirming community.
Imagine finding a blog that gives voice to the pain you are living and the words you've thought, but never shared. We've amassed a library that includes thousands of posts written by widowed people, that normalize the sometimes crazy process of grief and loss. Our blogs are searchable and will lead you to specific topics or questions. You can also read every post written by any of your favorite authors by searching their name. Every single word that you will read on this blog was written for widowed people, by widowed people.
Summer solstice. Winter solstice. The longest and shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. When I imagine the four seasons, I often will envision the face of a round clock,...
BRAVERY What does it mean to be brave? Definition of bravery 1 : the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : the quality or state of being...
Edward’s 53rd Birthday Comfortably run. No, not a typo. Simply a not particularly brilliant nod to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”. I do indeed mean that I am comfortably run. By a 10 km road...
As an adult, I have always been an avid reader. I started a book club in 2012 that met monthly for a solid 7 years. My friends would tease me that any books they picked I’d already read. This was...
I’ve brought up some of the ins and outs of being a care-griever. I can’t speak to the emotions that come with sudden loss but I can speak about the experience watching someone you love slowly fade...
**This post contains discussion of suicide and seeking mental health treatment for suicidal ideation. Some background: before Boris died by suicide, he was hospitalized three different times. Two...
After this past Winter I have resolved that next year, I am getting out of Dodge. It is not merely the frequent snowstorms, or the relentless cold, or the shearing wind, or the constant overcast skies...
A lot of people assume that all widowed people receive a life insurance payout after the death of their person. In the United States, only 52% of people have life insurance. Of those people, 27% don't carry an amount sufficient to cover all bills in the event of their person's death.
https://www.policygenius.com/life-insurance/life-insurance-statistics/
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, May 13, 2022
As humans, we tend to want to linger in the "good" emotions and speed through the discomfort of the "challenging" emotions. This is true in grief as well, but if we deny ourselves the anger (and other hard emotions) we are likely to make repeated trips back to it several times over. There's no timeline to any of this - only your time - and if anger requires a bit of extra time to push through now and in the future, give yourself the grace to walk through it as often and as long as needed.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 29, 2022
Ever hear that you should take their photos down? That it's been long enough, and having those memories on the walls must make you feel sad? That they're concerned because you still have memories of them displayed?
When we deny ourselves the opportunity to integrate our past with our present, we miss out on the comfort that bringing them forward into today can provide. You don't have to take those photos down until (or if) you're ready.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 22, 2022
This is a big one. We're often not told of the body's physical responses to the heavy toll that grief takes. Grief shows up physically in all sorts of different ways - hair loss, weight loss/weight gain, increased anxiety, mind fog, the inability to focus or read...our bodies all respond differently to the weight of the grief we carry.
#ssigriefmythbusters
(While this is true, we would be remiss if we didn't encourage you to discuss the physicality of your grief with your doctors)
Friday, March 25, 2022
As you grieve the death of a spouse or partner, it's normal for your emotional responses to be disproportionate to how you would normally react. Both heightened responses and decreased responses (feeling numb or unaffected) are a result of the trauma you are going through.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, February 25, 2022
Soaring Spirits International
2828 Cochran St. #194
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Email: contact@widowedvillage.org
Phone: 877-671-4071
Soaring Spirits International is a 501(c)3 Corporation EIN#: 38-3787893. Soaring Spirits International provides resources with no endorsement implied.