At the end of your day, become quiet in a place where you can mentally review your day – all of the activities, the people you interacted with, etc.  Then ask yourself when you felt most inspired, or grateful.  This would be the “high” point of your day.  Then – once you have that moment, ask yourself when you felt the opposite – the “low” point of your day.  It is optimal if you can record both moments in a journal, or notebook.

Ignatius felt that there was learning in both circumstances and therefore important to reflect on gratitude and on challenges.  Some have referred to this practice as sorting through the “roses” and the “thorns.”  After several weeks of this, you may be clearer about which aspects of your life are supporting your optimal health – emotional, mental, physical and spiritual; and which are causing you continued stress.  This stress may be coming from your own thoughts or beliefs about yourself and others – or it may be from a particular habit or interaction with a person.  Once you can see the patterns that help or hinder your growth, you can then make the necessary adjustments where possible.  For example, you may notice that whenever you exercise you feel good – and whenever you watch to my television you feel tired.  Insight doesn’t necessarily lead to change – but it may be the first step to discovering your greater potential and peace of mind.

Originally posted 2025-11-16 09:17:51.

The post The Daily Examen – a helpful tool to promote clarity first appeared on Geoff Straw - Counselling.

Pride: A Time for Celebration and Advocacy

As many communities across Canada prepare to celebrate Pride month the feeling of hope and resilience is palpable. Pride is a time to lift up our voices and to experience the joy of being together and acknowledging the journey toward wholeness and authenticity. It can also be a time for advocacy and indeed protest as we continue to proclaim and protect the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people worldwide.

Inclusion in Hospice Palliative Care

Hospice Palliative Care also seeks to include all people in the effort to support individuals and families at end of life, and through bereavement. Historically many organizations have not included 2SLGBTQ persons in the circle of care, either through a misunderstanding of our needs or simply by not recognizing how to offer a welcoming and inclusive environment.

Understanding Grief in 2SLGBTQ+ Lives

Grief is the natural response to love and loss that we will all experience, each in our own manner throughout the lifetime. For a gay or transgendered person, the journey to self acceptance is often a tumultuous one. Although we now might take for granted the protection offered through the human rights act in Canada for 2SLGBTQ+ people, as recently as the 1990’s gay civil servants could be terminated if their sexual orientation was discovered. In 2017 a historic apology from the federal government was offered to those individuals whose lives and careers were destroyed as a result of laws and policies that were discriminatory and unjust.

The Emotional Toll of Marginalization

Norman Cousins who wrote extensively about the challenges of living with a life-limiting diagnosis once said, “Death is not the greatest loss in life; the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”

Many 2SLGBTQ+ persons have experienced the pain of being different from a young age. Bullying, violence and isolation may have led us to believe that we were somehow flawed. As Alan Downs explores in his book, “The Velvet Rage” the tendency to hide our true selves is very strong. We may have learned to mask our true feelings and self, developing a public persona that we thought was acceptable to the outside world.

Barriers to Grief Expression

Early life experiences of isolation, trauma and fear that are common in the lives of many 2SLGBTQ+ individuals may lead to later challenges in the expression of grief when a loved one dies.

Grief is a unique experience for everyone and there is no right or wrong way to express our loss. Our North American culture may treat grief like an illness to be cured, or a problem that needs to be solved, packed up, and put away.

For queer persons there may often be a lack of support or an estrangement from family who are not accepting or understanding of their son, daughter or sibling. There might also be an inability to acknowledge the painful aspects of the loss due to the “masking” tendency developed as a survival strategy throughout life.

Creating Inclusive Grief Support

Healing through grief includes acceptance of ourselves as we are, and our unique expressions of emotions and struggle. While this may be more difficult for 2SLGBTQ+ persons, I believe that it is possible to find a way through. Educating and empowering organizations to support us in our experience of loss is a path forward. Too often well-meaning hospice and other community-based agencies have not fostered a culture of inclusiveness and belonging.

Service organizations can take meaningful steps to relieve unintentional barriers to care by:

• Honouring pronouns and fostering belonging through inclusive language.
• Adapting intake forms to reflect chosen names and preferred address.
• Displaying Pride flags and 2SLGBTQ+ symbols in visible spaces.
• Embedding inclusion in mission statements and values along with a non-discrimination policy.
• Offering queer-friendly services such as individual support and 2SLGBTQ+ grief circles.
• Training staff in community-specific needs and cultural competency.

A Path Forward

By prioritizing inclusivity, everyone – regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity – will know that they are welcomed and accepted and have found a place to honour their unique expression of grief. And, to receive support that may be an essential part of the healing journey.

Self acceptance, safety, and the positive regard of others in our life are essential ingredients for resilience and healing.

Originally posted 2025-06-27 13:22:59.

The post Grief and bereavement in the 2SLGBTQ+ community: exploring challenges and resilience first appeared on Geoff Straw - Counselling.

Today we gather as a community of mourners, each of us drawn here by a common thread as we seek to remember and honor the life of a person who is special to us.  We are each grieving a loss, we remember how life used to be and we are trying to re build our lives as best as we can.  Some days it’s a challenge, seeking to grieve and to care for ourselves wanting to find healing in the pain of loss.

My own mother died one year ago today and I am grateful for her life and for what she taught me – the importance of community, to always be kind, and to believe in myself.  But I also struggle with her absence – and at times feel lost as I try to adjust to “the new normal” without her.  As you know, when someone you love dies, you can’t go backwards and change the things that you might have wished went differently.  Life as we know it, will never be quite the same again. We ask many questions – why did this happen?  Could we have done more? Been more forgiving, compassionate, aware? And so we move through our grief without necessarily having any answers  – sometimes clumsy, tentative, unsure and sometimes in spite of ourselves.

Someone once described grief as a “journey through the wilderness” meaning that we don’t have a map as we’ve never travelled this way before.  We may feel scared, angry and alone.  Yes, we will have experienced other losses and griefs, but this one is unique because our relationship with our loved one was unique and special.  Our life is changed and we can’t go back – we must move forward, one day at a time.  And so one thing that helps me on this grief journey –  is to try and remain in the present as much as I can – if I think too far ahead I feel anxious.  Each day we take another step forward, maybe some days reluctantly even when we don’t want to, but life for us and those around us, does go on.

Each of us here today will have a different experience – “your grief is as unique as your thumbprint.”  There is no one right way to grieve, to love, to live.  But even though we are different – we are also united by our grief.  I know that others can understand to a degree – what I am feeling because they are too, in their  own way.  Coming together today. –  to share stories, view the pictures of our loved ones, to cry, to laugh, to heal – is important because it helps us.  And so we honour our grieving, our loving and our healing.  This is a sacred path and one that will transform us in ways that are unexpected, perhaps uncomfortable at times and also amazing.  So as we release the beautiful butterflies, symbols of new life and of freedom, may we each receive the gift of hope and transformation.

Originally posted 2023-06-19 12:22:00.

The post Grieving the death of a parent first appeared on Geoff Straw - Counselling.

“To be present is to know what you need to know in the moment.  To be present to something is to allow the moment, the person, the idea, or the situation to change you.” (Breathing Underwater, 2011)

We become receptive and willing to let go of rigid programs, thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that may be holding us back from self awareness.

To practice being present, bring your focus to your breathing, even for just a few minutes and notice what it feels like.

Originally posted 2023-05-24 12:21:40.

The post What does it mean to be present? first appeared on Geoff Straw - Counselling.