Companioning the Bereaved - The Tenets of Companioning the Bereaved Heart To have “heart” as you companion people in grief is to be true to your own feelings, humanness and vulnerabilities. When you work from a place of heart, you function as a whole. When your analytical, thinking self is in charge, you may be just in your head. Yet, the centerpiece of the integration of grief is not the mind, but the heart. Being a companion naturally occurs when you relax into yourself and bring compassion to all of your helping efforts. This allows you to fulfill not only your personal passion to help those in grief, but also your highest purpose that will be part of your contribution to helping all people mourn well so they can go on to live well and love well. When you minister from the heart, you are in a state of deep connection with the divine, with yourself and with other human beings. You do not minister alone, but in the companionship of other companions. Once you have explored the then qualities outlined above, considering your strengths and weaknesses, it is probably best to forget all this and return to this tenet only when you feel that one or more of these qualities is missing in your helping relationships. When you feel yourself struggling in a companioning relationship, you may find that it is because you have temporarily lost touch with one or more of these qualities.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:22:42 +0000