Courage My Heart

Learn to listen to your heart.

Breathe. Move. Meditate. Heal. Love.

Everything Is Connected

My beloved,

YOU are magic. I want you to know that wherever you are in the world right now, whatever situation you are dealing with, whatever you have gone through, it can be overcome. Light can always be found ~ have faith and hope, please trust and believe this truth deep within your heart.

Let light shine out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6).

I help grieving families to heal. I am a meditation teacher and grief guide supporting you to heal grief and loss through mindfulness practices, cultivating lovingkindness (mettā-bhāvanā), and creative self-expression. When you lose someone you love, your life suddenly changes forever, you are left alone, struggling, and completely broken.

Even when surrounded by well intentioned family and friends, it’s important to feel heard, to be supported, and to really connect with someone who gets it, so we are comfortable sharing our deepest pain.

I am devoted to helping you return to your true self by growing a healthy, inspired and meaningful life ~ full of courage, love and magic.

I carry your heart in mine, softly held, fiercely loved, infinitely together ♡

It takes courage to transform.

There is a spiritual alchemy to transform deep grief and pain into meaning. Grief is a journey that is not linear but we can heal. My role as a grief guide is to gently guide you through the stages of grief, supporting you with the tools and practices for times when courage is not enough, when you feel fragile, when you are stuck and uncertain, when you are completely overcome by grief in what feels like an eternal darkness, and at times when you are unable to breathe.

I know it takes courage to take the next step in your healing journey.

Fear is a normal and natural feeling and can keep us trapped in our suffering if we don’t take action to heal our hearts.

To even want to move forward when you are in grief can feel like a betrayal.

I also know it takes a tremendous amount of trust to open your heart and move beyond the suffering of your loss. I have learned that their is hope, and you can find meaning in your life and in the life of your loved one. Nothing could prepare me for the death of my beautiful 22 year-old daughter Natasha.

My life work is dedicated in honour of her.

Everything Is Connected

Breathing is life changing.

In grief, your breathing can become very shallow, or you may find yourself holding your breath. We are often not aware of how we hold our body physically, hunched over or slumped down, sometimes laying down in the fetal position, wanting to protect our heart.

Grief is all encompassing and affects your mind, body, heart, and spirit.

There is no way around grief, it is a journey we all face and it is true as they say, ‘you must feel the pain to heal the pain’.

Grief can be even more challenging because it brings old wounds to the surface. Our past feelings, memories and traumas we thought we had dealt with can further compound and complicate our grieving process.

I am honoured to support and guide you in the grief and mindfulness practices that have helped me move forward in my healing journey.

I know they will help you.

Simple changes that will have an impact on every area of your life. Starting with breathing practices that allow for stillness, gentle movements to shift energy both emotionally and physically in your body, and meditation practices to open your heart and listen with intuitive awareness. When we are honest, vulnerable, and accountable, we can begin to heal the heartbreak and trauma we have hidden.

Sometimes even from ourselves.

Breathe with your whole heart.

If you are struggling right now, try this.

Start by bringing attention to your breath. Place your hand on your heart. Just breathe.

Breathe with your whole heart.

Become aware of the natural pattern of your breathing, and pay attention to the inbreath, the pause, and the outbreath. Try to bring a rhythm to your breath, breathe IN for 3 seconds, pause, and breath OUT for 3 seconds. Once you have settled into a comfortable rhythm, start to count a full breath, with a full breath being the IN breath, the pause, and the OUT breath.

Begin counting, 1 full breath, 2 full breath, 3 full breath, and so on. You may have stopped counting and you are breathing without having to monitor yourself. As you practice breathing with intention, you become mindful of your thoughts and feelings, and aware of your emotional thought patterns.

Mindful breathing is the most powerful practice to connect your mind ~ body ~ heart in your healing journey.

YOU are loved. I have shared a poem at the end of this page by e e cummings, words which ‘carry me’ every day, words which have carried me through my deepest and darkest storms, truly through my “dark night of the soul”. May you find solace in these words.

YOU are blessed. I wish you peace ~ OM Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi.

All the love,

Melissa x

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart
(i carry it in my heart)

e e cummings