healing a broken heart

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WORKSHOP- Sunday 26 March 2023

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment
Cover of A Guide Through Grief

Grief hurts! It hurts like hell. The pain of loss can be so intense it stops us in our tracks. I know; grief has been a shaping force in my life. A Guide Through Grief is the book I wished I’d had when I was fourteen and my father died after a long battle with cancer and I was thrown into the rollercoaster of emotions that accompanies the loss of someone or something you love. It has the tools I needed when my brother Matty killed himself at twenty after struggling with schizophrenia for many years. The tools I had when my infant son Teddy died after only a few days from a congenital heart defect.

For years I searched for a book that helped me find a way through what felt like the impenetrable maze of grief, something to show me the way forward. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s book On Death and Dying helped a bit, but every other text on grief I picked up only made me feel worse. I needed tools, practical ways to help myself feel better.

I never did find a book that helped, so I wrote one myself. In the years following the death of my son, I wrote A Guide Through Grief and in it I share all the practical and creative tools that helped me recover my joy in life.

So I am very happy to announce that I will be holding a

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WORKSHOP at Books@Stones bookstore in Stones Corner, Brisbane on

Sunday 26th March 2023 from 10:30 am to 1pm.

Yes, shit happens. But turn that shit into fertiliser and grow yourself a beautiful garden. Let me show you how.

There is a way forward, you won’t always feel so lost. Let me gently guide you through some easy, soothing activities in a small group to help you find a way to smile at life again. Find your way through the maze of emotions grief brings in this gentle, nurturing 2.5 hour workshop led by an experienced facilitator who has experienced grief herself many times over and come out the other side, happy and strong.

Explore how using a variety of creative techniques and simple, non-strenuous yoga practices, will help you heal the pain of losing someone or something you love. This workshop will leave you feeling comforted, heard and held. You may even laugh a little 🙂

Places are strictly limited to no more than 15 participants so do DROP ME A LINE to confirm availability.

AGTG front cover (marketing) v10

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WORKSHOP SUNDAY MARCH 26 10:30 – 1pm

Find your way through the maze of emotions grief brings in this gentle, nurturing 2.5 hour workshop led by an experienced facilitator that will leave you feeling comforted, heard and held. Explore how using a variety of creative techniques and simple, non-strenuous yoga practices, will help you heal the pain of losing someone or something you love. PLACES STRICTLY LIMITED TO A MAXIMUM OF 15 Morning snacks included in price

A$35.00

You will smile again. I promise.

With lots of love,

Edwina xxx

WRITING FOR HEALING

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment

Sunrise, Mission Beach FNQ

Do you have stories that demand to be told? Recurring memories that won’t let you go, no matter how hard you try to forget? A whole lengthy catalogue of repeating traumatic memories that won’t let you rest? Get those stories out of your head and onto the page and you’ll begin a miraculous journey of healing.

Believe me. I’ve been there. My first book Thrill Seekers is made up of the memories that wouldn’t let me be, transformed into fiction. The process of doing this taught me many things about how we can use writing to transform the stories we tell ourselves. The act of creating a work of beauty from the pain we endure is a great healing act.

I am passionate about the power of story to heal the emotional wounds and scars we carry. For many years now I’ve worked with people who have suffered unbearable trauma, helping them to express their truths and find their voices. So much healing comes from telling our stories and having these stories heard, acknowledged and believed. Watch the session HERE.

Kerstin and I in the Arts Nexus recording studio in Babinda.

While I was working in Far North Queensland recently, my dear friend and fellow writing teacher and retreat facilitator, Kerstin Pilz, and I recorded a session for the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival’s year round program on Writing for Healing . Join us for this fascinating discussion on how we have both used writing as a powerful tool for helping us to clear grief and traumatic loss and moved forward in our lives.

Kerstin and I at the Babinda Boulders – in the heart of Wanyurr Majay. Madanji country

Whether you are interested in beginning to tell your own stories or if you work with people who need to have their stories heard, this discussion will help you make a start and find new ways of using writing for healing.

Be brave! For many years I was too afraid to begin unearthing my stories, thinking I’d fall apart and never be able to put myself back together again. But the opposite happened. Yes, there were tears, many many tears, but this is how we wash our wounds clean – with tears and telling. But I didn’t fall apart, I started to come back together again.

Find your voice. Tell your stories. Healing is within your own power.

With lots of love,

Edwina xx

A new dawn is on its way.

Remember if you need a hand to hold and some words to comfort and uplift you when going through grief and loss my Guide Through Grief is available now in all good bookstores.