Elizabeth Boisson is the remarkable President and Co-Founder of Helping Parents Heal, the inspiring non-profit organization dedicated to assisting bereaved parents to become Shining Light Parents by providing support and resources to aid in the healing process. Elizabeth is also the Affiliate Director of the Phoenix/Scottsdale chapter of Helping Parents Heal, the Editor of the Helping Parents Heal newsletter, a Helping Parents Heal Caring Listener and a certified yoga instructor.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR ABOUT THINGS LIKE:
- The shared death experience Elizabeth had with her son Morgan at the base camp of Mt. Everest in Tibet and how it transformed her.
- The wonderful resources Helping Parents Heal provides for parents and families of children who have passed.
- There are 130 chapters of Helping Parents Heal in the United States and which countries outside the United States also have chapters.
- The documentary that features members of Helping Parents Heal called “Life to Afterlife, Mom, can you hear me?” which can be viewed for free on Amazon Prime and YouTube.
SOME QUESTIONS IRENE ASKS ELIZABETH:
- Is it truly possible to heal from the passing of a child?
- What is a Shining Light Parent?
- What is a Helping Parents Heal Caring Listener?
SHOW LINKS:
‘Life to Afterlife, Mom, Can You Hear Me?’, a documentary that was produced last year by Craig McMahon – free on Amazon Prime.
CONTACT:
I am also a Caring Listener and an Affiliate Leader with Helping Parents Heal and my phone number and email are on our website: 480-363-5275, elizabeth@helpingparentsheal.org
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Listen to the podcast here
Elizabeth Boisson: President And Co-Founder Of Helping Parents Heal
I’m bringing you a sure-to-be touching interview with Elizabeth Boisson, the remarkable President, and Cofounder of Helping Parents Heal, an inspiring nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting bereaved parents to become Shining Light Parents by providing support and resources to aid in the healing process.
Elizabeth is also the Affiliate Director of the Phoenix-Scottsdale chapter of Helping Parents Heal, the Editor of the Helping Parents Heal Newsletter, a Helping Parents Heal Caring Listener, and a certified yoga instructor who teaches many different styles of yoga, including Yoga for Healing Grief, and Yoga Nidra, which is similar to guided meditation. I’m looking forward to asking Elizabeth questions about Helping Parents Heal, Shining Light Parents, and much more.
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Elizabeth, it’s a true pleasure to welcome you to the show.
It’s wonderful to be here. Thanks so much for inviting me.
You’re so welcome. It’s such a pleasure. Let’s begin our interview with this question. You have four beautiful children. Two of whom are in spirit. Your daughter, Chelsea, passed when she was two days old on October 21st, 1991. When your 20-year-old son, Morgan, passed 18 years later, your life was transformed. What was your life like before Morgan’s passing?
When Chelsea passed, I felt so grateful because I had been in the hospital on an IV for two months. I had placenta previa. I was on the IV to keep from having contractions. I wasn’t able to see Morgan very much during that time. He was a little over two years old. I missed him like crazy. I must say that when Chelsea passed, Morgan saved my life. He was the reason that I could go forward. He would hug me whenever he saw that I was sad. I moved forward at that point with 1 foot here and 1 foot on the other side.
I was very fortunate after that because I had two more beautiful children, Alix and Christine. All three of my children were wonderful. Our life wasn’t perfect, but it was almost perfect. We traveled all over. They were all born in France. My husband was working in Hong Kong and in China. We moved here to the States. Our world was a perfect world at that time.
You had an exciting full life. That’s wonderful. Tell us about the shared death experience you had with your son Morgan at the base camp of Mount Everest and Tibet, how it transformed you, and your journey to cofound Helping Parents Heal three years later.
One other thing that I neglected to say before was that I had always been very drawn to yoga because of the fact that we lived in India when I was in middle school and high school. When I was living in college, my mom and dad were still living there. I started early. Yoga helped me to move forward and heal with Chelsea. I was almost to the point of becoming a yoga teacher right when Morgan passed at the base camp of Mount Everest. In fact, I had just gotten back from yoga when I got the call from the Director of the Program saying that Morgan was having difficulty and they were going to evacuate him down the mountain.
What had happened with Morgan was that they landed in Lhasa, which is 11,000 feet, and went up to the base camp of Mount Everest at 19,000 feet the next day. Usually, you should always acclimate at least two days before you do something like that. All of the kids in the program were very sick. Morgan was helping a lot of them because he had been there two years before. He knew Chinese a little bit better than some of the other kids. There were no professors who were with them.
When they got to the base camp, Morgan had a terrible migraine. He went to bed early. They had yurts at the base camp of Mount Everest. The yurt was a big open space like a tent. In the middle of the night, he was wandering around calling people the wrong names. They thought that he was sleepwalking. At 9:00 in the morning, they couldn’t wake him up and he was foaming at the mouth. One of the kids in the program, his mother is a doctor in Seattle. He called her and said, “What should we do?” She said, “Get him down the mountain right away.”
My son was and is 6’6”, 280 pounds. It was a huge job to get him onto the bus. The kids did. On the way down the mountain, he stopped breathing. In the meantime, the Director of the Program called me and said that they were having trouble with Morgan. They were evacuating him down the mountain. He gave me the number of Morgan’s roommate. I called him and I said, “Colin, is Morgan okay?” He said, “Ms. Boisson, I don’t think so.”
He had stopped breathing by the time they were doing CPR on him. He said, “I don’t think he’s going to survive.” I told Colin to put the phone up to Morgan’s ear and I told Morgan, “We love you. We’re proud of you. Don’t be afraid.” Right when I did that, I just had this incredible hug. I was here in Cave Creek, Arizona, and he was in Tibet. Whenever I say that, I always get the same feeling.
Morgan was my shining star and still is. He was my everything in spite of the fact that I have two beautiful daughters as well. He was my firstborn. He was my only boy. I spent at least a few minutes every single day on the phone with him, even when he was in China and when he was in France. Wherever he was traveling, we were always speaking. At that point, I knew for sure that love lives forever and that our kids are still right here. I set out on a quest to find a group to talk to other parents, to whom this had also happened. Unfortunately, there weren’t any that existed in 2009.
I can so relate to your feelings about Morgan because I have a son also. He’s my one and only. We’re very close. It’s very dear and precious. I can still relate to that. Now, you’re the Shining Light Mom to Morgan and Chelsea and mom to your daughters Alix and Christine, who are in their 20s. How did the name Shining Light Parent come into being and what exactly is a Shining Light Parent?
I love the name Shining Light Parent. One of the problems having a group like this is that Irene Vouvalides, who is the Vice President, and myself hate the word bereaved. They’ve designated it as one of the saddest words in the dictionary. We didn’t want to call ourselves bereaved because we’re not sad. It is something that parents have a hard time belonging to a group where everyone is calling themselves bereaved as well.
Helping Parents Heal: “Bereaved” is one of the saddest words in the dictionary. Parents have a hard time belonging to a group where everyone is calling themselves “bereaved”.
It also has the feeling. When you think about the word bereaved, it’s like it’s never going to end. Now, you’re bereaved. Where do you go from that? Is that your designation?
I was going to say something about that because one of the big differences with our group is that we believe that it’s possible to heal. Whereas, a lot of other bereavement groups that you might belong to will tell you that you’ll never get over the passing of a child. We believe that our children want us to be happy. They want us to move forward and heal.
They’re our biggest cheerleaders. It’s funny because Morgan was a cheerleader at the University of Arizona. I know that he’s one of those cheerleaders cheering us on. I also know that they walk beside us and they hold our hands the whole way. Irene and I spoke to Suzanne Giesemann, who I know has been on your show before. She’s amazing.
She’s a wonderful person.
She said, “How about if I meditate on this? Let’s see what comes up.” She came back to us with the term Shining Light Parent. It resonated with all three of us. The important thing for people to understand is not that we are shining just because we’re big shining lights. Our children shine through us. The light of our kids shines through us. I can see this in other parents’ eyes as well, that they are with them. That’s where the term comes from.
We are Shining Light Parents because our children shine through us. Click To Tweet
It makes a big difference. For me, I lost my husband, but I know he’s with me. He’s my shining light also. It just makes tremendous sense. It illumines everything that I do now. It changes the complexion of all of it. Elizabeth, how many grieving parents belong to Helping Parents Heal? How many chapters are there in the United States and throughout the world? What countries have chapters outside the United States? Give us a little overview. This organization, how old is it? Look at what you’ve grown here.
To start with, I started this a week after Morgan passed because I didn’t know any parents who had children who had passed. I started a Facebook group. That Facebook group now has over 16,000 members. There are 16,200 or something like that. You don’t want an organization like this to grow. At the same time, I know that the kids are bringing all of their parents and helping them find us, which is wonderful because we don’t advertise at all.
We have groups in the United States, Canada, the UK, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. We have parents all over the world who attend our meetings, not just in those different countries. The only requirement to be an affiliate leader is to be a Shining Light Parent. We’re very fortunate to have a lot of people interested in becoming affiliate leaders with us.
That leads me to my next question. Tell me what an affiliate leader does.
It used to be very different because, before COVID, we could have physical meetings. A lot of the leaders would have meetings in Unity churches that we’re very open to having us meet there, as well as in libraries, as well as in their own homes. The physical meetings were wonderful because one of the big things about Helping Parents Heal, and we have it on the front page, is that it’s so important to be able to hug and be hugged. That’s such a big part of the healing process. We can’t do that anymore. We had to postpone our second conference which was already sold out. We were going to have it in Charleston, South Carolina. We were so fortunate that every single presenter agreed to speak in Zoom meetings to the parents. Many of them have come back, as well.
The affiliate groups are a little different from the main group meetings where we have a speaker and a chat box, and people can ask questions. The affiliate group meetings are for parents to be able to talk to each other. The affiliate leaders facilitate the discussion. One of the important things about our meetings is that we introduce some uplifting topics to start with. We talk about the ten most common signs that our kids use to send us messages. Then, we go around and ask everybody what their experience in this has been.
One of the great things is that we have people who might call themselves bereaved parents at those meetings because they’re very early on in the journey. We then have parents who are on there who are our Shining Light Parents. It’s so good for our bereaved parents to be able to learn from the Shining Light Parents about how to move forward and heal.
When you think about that they’re a Shining Light Parent, but you’re a shining light for these people also, who’ve had this tremendous devastating loss. I wasn’t planning to ask you this question, but now I have to ask. What are the 10 most common signs that people get from the other side?
That’s going to be hard for me to go through.
Give us 3 or 4 of them.
I’ll tell you some because this is such a good question. Our kids use animals all the time. A lot of people say that hummingbirds are important to them. Some people say butterflies. For us, it’s bobcats because Morgan went to the University of Arizona and he was a wildcat. He was a cheerleader there. We have bobcats that come up to us in the nature preserve all the time. We know that it’s Morgan saying hi. Animals are one way.
Numbers. Sequences of numbers are so important to many parents. Sometimes, you’ll get 1111, or 11111, for instance. You’ll have it throughout the day or 333. Also, license plates, a lot of times spell out important messages for parents exactly when they need them or the make and model and the color of the car that your child drove.
My son drove a Toyota Tacoma and it was red. I see them all the time when I have a question. I say, “Morgan, if I’m supposed to do this, send me three of them.” I’ll get three of them, which they’re very rare on the road. It’s fun to do that. There are so many different ways with electricity, with the ways that lights go on and off when you’re talking to them, or the plumbing in your house. They can communicate with water as well. Let me think about some of the other things.
It’s important for parents to be able to understand that these are ways that they communicate so that they can recognize the signs. Dream visits are one of the ways that everybody understands and everybody recognizes. When people are not getting those dream visits, they’ll say, “I’m not getting anything from my kids.” They’re expecting them to maybe appear in the corner of the room and say something to them, but it’s hard. Their energy, especially trying over and over again to try to communicate with us, it’s difficult. These other ways, when they see that other parents are experiencing them, it helps them understand, “I had that.”
When they hear someone else telling them what they’ve experienced, maybe they’re blocking it. Their fear is blocking it. Maybe that helps them to open up more to receive their messages. What happened to me, I didn’t understand it after he passed. My husband was an avid football fan. For the first three months after he passed, I had a TV in my office. It had no remote control. It was an old TV. That thing would go on for Monday night football for fifteen minutes and then shut off. I have to say, “I’m still here. I’m still watching.”
That’s exactly what people get and I love it. There are other much stronger signs. Morgan has a lot of very close friends who have told me about ways that he’s saved their lives. For instance, he has a friend named Dan McGee, who was a cheer buddy of his. He was the mascot. He was Wilbur Wildcat. He became a firefighter after he graduated from the University of Arizona. He was in a house that was burning with a friend of his. They were going to get a car out of the garage. His buddy was in the car putting in a neutral. Dan was going to push. All of a sudden, he felt someone pull him backwards. He said he flew off his feet and went backwards.
Morgan is known for his bear hugs. His name was Big Bear. This is not all. An air conditioning unit dropped from the ceiling, right where he was standing immediately after he was pulled backward. The guy in the car said, “What happened?” He saw it happen himself, too. Dan named his son after Morgan. These kinds of things happen all the time, too. These are a little different than the ten most common signs. There are some amazing things that happen too, that our kids do for us. It’s fun to be able to share them in these meetings so that people also recognize that those things are possible. They’re always watching over us.
It’s so wonderful. This fascinates me. What is a Helping Parents Heal Caring Listener? When people are reaching out to you, they’re so sad and upset. How does that work? Fill me in. Someone wants to join the organization or they’re just calling to get comfort?
We are very fortunate to have Dr. Mark Pitstick, who helps us out with the Caring Listeners. Lynn Hollahan is his assistant. We have 29 Caring Listeners who speak 9 different languages now. We added Russian as one of the languages that is spoken. I feel so grateful because all of these parents are parents who have gone down the healing path a little bit further than other parents and they reach a hand back to help others forward. They’re volunteers. Their phone numbers are on the website. Their email addresses are on the website. I’m one of the Caring Listeners. I also speak French. I also have that on my bio. It’s so wonderful for us as parents to be able to help these other parents.
Helping Parents Heal: All of these parents are parents who have gone down the healing path a little bit further than other parents, and they reach a hand back to help others forward.
They call you and they’re crying, probably.
It depends on what’s going on in their lives. Being able to talk to somebody who has been through this before is one of the most important elements of healing. If we don’t have the resources that they need, sometimes we have better Caring Listeners who know a little bit more about what these people are going through. We can refer them to them. Although, that doesn’t usually happen. We also have so many resources on the website that we can direct them to as well.
The one thing that makes me very sad for now is that we can’t necessarily get together with these people in person until we’re all vaccinated. That used to be the case. It used to be wonderful to be able to do that. At the same time, the wonderful thing about COVID is that all of these affiliate groups that we have, all of the meetings that we have, people can attend them from all over the world. It’s the same way with the Caring Listeners. You can call from Australia and speak to a Caring Listener here in the States. With FaceTime, it’s easy. It doesn’t cost anything.
With Caring Listeners though, do people call you a few times or it’s one call? You’ve comforted someone, you’ve helped them, you’re teaching them, you’re sharing Helping Parents Heal. The week goes by. Now, they’re still grieving and feeling lousy. Do you get a follow-up call? How does that work?
Sometimes. I will speak to people ten times if they need. It isn’t something that happens very often because once you get it, once you understand where your kids are, that they are happy, healthy, and home, and that we’re still in school, that is the point where you start to realize that you want to learn more and more about the afterlife community and read books like your book. We have a lot of recommended reading on the site.
A lot of these parents, especially the ones who heal, are the ones who read 80 books the first year, for instance, about the afterlife, which is wonderful. Also, we have a lot of other resources besides the Caring Listeners, such as Judy Hancock, who does her healing once a month. One of our affiliate groups teaches us how to do automatic writing with our children. She has the meetings twice a month and those are free of charge as well. We have mediums who come on, as well as experts from the grief community and experts from the afterlife community, who help us with exercises to communicate with our kids, which is important as well.
That is marvelous. Are all the chapters in the United States and throughout the world conducted in a similar fashion? Do you have a prescribed protocol or format?
Our Affiliate Director, Dawn Richards, is very good about getting a handbook to all of the affiliate leaders. She helps them get the Facebook page together. Normally, what we have them do is attend other affiliate leader meetings before they start having their own meetings. Affiliate groups are a place for everyone to express themselves. We do have a lot of affiliate groups. Some affiliate groups meet more than once a month. They have speakers who have already spoken to Helping Parents Heal, who are so generous with their time, and who come back to speak to their groups as well. It is very similar.
The most important thing about all of these groups and about Helping Parents Heal, in general, is that we are completely non-dogmatic. You don’t have to believe in anything, or you can believe in whatever you want to believe in to be a part of Helping Parents Heal. The one thing that connects us is that we believe that we have a connection with our kids in spirit and that we can eventually, ourselves learn to communicate with them.
Helping Parents Heal: The one thing that connects us is that we believe that we have a connection with our kids in spirit, and that we can eventually learn to communicate with them ourselves.
You will see them again. They’re around us. That’s the most beautiful part to know that. It’s not over when it’s over.
George Anderson has said in Walking in the Garden of Souls that when we see our kids, it’s going to be as though not one second has passed. I truly believe that because I believe that they participate in everything that we’re doing. I also believe that at night when I am asleep, I’m spending time with Morgan and Chelsea, even though I don’t realize it. I had my second dream visit in several years. It was the most incredible thing that’s ever happened. Those are not easy to have, but there are so many other things that go on. For some people, they’re easy. It depends on the person, but there are so many other things that happen.
For us too, another thing about it is that in meetings, anyone who’s getting a sign helps the other parents who are there as well. Hearing about these, understanding that it’s real, and understanding from your show and other experts in the afterlife community, everyone that we have on our YouTube channel says the exact same thing. It’s not as though it differs in any way. This place that they are right now is right here with us. It’s like a sheet of wax paper is separating us from them. They are happy. They are healthy. They’re doing wonderful things. They’re not sitting around. They’re helping us to progress, as well. Knowing all of this is so healing for all of the parents.
It’s so true. I’ve put in an order for champagne when I cross over with Saul, like, “Come on. We’re going to celebrate.” In 2020, a producer named Craig McMahon produced a documentary that features members of Helping Parents Heal. It is called Life to AfterLife: Mom, Can You Hear Me? Please tell us both about Craig McMahon and Life to Afterlife: Mom, Can You Hear Me? All of our readers will be glad to hear that you can view this documentary, this film for free on both Amazon Prime and YouTube. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
First of all, I met Craig at the AREI Conference and I thought, “A lot of people have wanted to do shows about Helping Parents Heal. We’ve had a lot of people film things about us and they never happen.” Craig did this so quickly. He interviewed seventeen members of Helping Parents Heal, who are all people that I told him about. Craig is a Shining Light Sibling. He has 2 brothers in spirit, 1 who passed in a car accident and 1 who took his life not too long after. He knows the devastation of having a child pass in a family. He wanted to do something to be able to help.
All of us talked about Helping Parents Heal. We talked about the signs that we were getting from our children. We talked about our healing path. It’s funny because we talked about so much more. We talked about these incredible things that are happening in our lives, but Craig didn’t want to put the big stuff because he was afraid that since it was one of the first movies of its kind, people would think that we were all a little crazy. He’s thinking about doing a 2.0 so that we can go into even more amazing things. It’s seventeen parents who have all moved forward and healed. It’s because they know that their kids are still right here.
It sounds to me like something I’m going to say to people when they have a loss, “Watch this documentary. This will be so helpful to you.”
That would be wonderful. It has probably 120 reviews on Amazon. They’re almost all five-star. I wasn’t expecting that when it came out. It was very simple. Craig’s sitting on a sofa interviewing each of us as parents. It is very profound because as Craig says, “You see these parents who had a perfect life before their children passed. Now, they had the most horrible thing that could ever happen to a parent happens, but they are happy and they are moving forward. They’re even happier than a lot of people who have all of the material things that they need in their lives.” It does bring a lot of hope, especially to parents who are early on in this journey, that this early-on sadness is going to lift. We’re going to live again and experience happiness again.
Sadness is going to lift, and we're going to live again and experience happiness again. Click To Tweet
I could see this film even helping people who have not necessarily lost children, even if you’ve lost a spouse or you’ve lost your parent, it lets you know that they will go on. This whole belief system is so truly helpful. My mom is 96 and she is very sharp. Because of my experiences, she has communicated with my father and my husband on the other side and all of that. I hope she has another 96 years, but whenever that time comes, we have a running joke. She goes, “I’ll give you this. I’ll give you that.” I say, “Mom, you’re going to be so busy with mediums contacting you. You won’t have time to be dead. They’ll have a regular switchboard in the sky for you.”
We joke. We go back and forth and it changes the whole thing. I’m going to cry, I’m going to be sad, and all of that, but I’m also not going to be as devastated because it doesn’t have the finality to it. I tell her, “Mom, I’m going to see you again. You’ve made such a contribution. You came here to do so much and look what you’ve accomplished.” We are able to have those kinds of conversations. It is so helpful.
I want to add to that. I’ve heard that our kids are looking at us almost as though the dads are looking into our maternity ward. They’re looking at their kids and they’re saying, “That’s my child.” They’re doing the same things with us. They’re saying, “That’s my mom. That’s my dad.” They’re so proud of us when we are able to move forward and heal. Even more importantly, the thing that helps us the most on this journey is to be able to help others. Being able to have these affiliate leaders, these Caring Listeners, everybody’s a part of this. It makes them feel so good.
Also, another thing that I’ve heard from so many people is that when our kids are at the meetings with us, because they attend those meetings with us, when they see us smile, they high-five each other because they are helping each other learn how to communicate with us. I love the fact that they’re all one big, huge group of friends. The day that I wait for and that I can’t wait for more than anything is the day that I get to get over there and hug each and every one of those beautiful kids, because I know them all by name. They almost feel like they’re my kids now.
I’ve read so many of your books and I’ve interviewed so many of you. Grief and Rebirth is such a healing community. Helping Parents Heal is such a healing community. On the other side, we have our healing community, our cheerleaders. I was going to ask you this question, but you answered it. No one, before reading an interview like this, would think that you could heal from the death of a child and you can.
I truly believe that. It’s sad that society will tell you first of all, that you’re never going to heal. A lot of times you’ll have therapists, psychiatrists, and other people telling you that you’re probably going to get divorced within a certain amount of time because that’s some statistic. That doesn’t have to happen. As a matter of fact, all of the families that I know grow closer when this happens.
Knowing where our kids are and that they are happy and healthy is such an important part of healing. I hate to say this, but a lot of people almost feel like their kids are on an exchange program someplace and that they are doing great. Maybe we can’t touch them and hold them physically the way that we used to be able to, but they are a thought away and they’ll be with us and helping us every single day.
Knowing where our kids are and knowing that they are happy and healthy is such an important part of healing. Click To Tweet
That is such a comfort and it’s true. I know it to be true, too. I feel so blessed. For people who have such a sense of fidelity and this is it. One life, here we go. You are entitled to your feelings and your beliefs. I always say, “I like my angle on the dangle a lot better.” I know we will all go on and it gives you so much comfort.
It gives you comfort, but it also gives you skin in the game. It’s important for us to realize that everything that we do here and every kindness that we show to anyone, as we’re moving forward, resonates in eternity. We need to understand that the only important thing in this life and the only thing that we’re supposed to be learning about is love. When we start thinking that it’s about anything else besides love, it skews our viewpoint.
In this life, the only thing that we're supposed to be learning about is love. Click To Tweet
When they pulled me out of the car, the message I got was, “Be loving and kind to everyone.” There it was. Speaking about loving and kind, you are into Yoga for Healing Grief. I do yoga. Please tell me what that is about. Do you have online classes for Healing Grief? Maybe someone will want to join you one day.
Yes. Initially, I was teaching about thirteen hours before COVID hit. I was doing so in a gym. I was doing so in libraries. I was doing a free Yoga for Healing Grief class every week. I did that for about five years. When COVID came around, I switched to online. I teach five days a week at 8:00 in the morning. Anyone is welcome to join. You could try and see if you like it first. I teach a lot of different types of yoga. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I teach flow with some power options. On Tuesday and Thursday, I do yin, which is deep stretching, and Yoga Nidra as well, depending if people would like to do that or not. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation.
I do a lot of those as well with the different affiliate groups who have me come in and do those for their monthly meetings as well, because they’re only 35 minutes, so they don’t take the whole time. Anyway, if anybody’s interested, I can certainly give them more information about that. I love teaching yoga. Yoga raises our vibration and it allows us to connect with our kids easier. Meditation does as well. There are a lot of things that we can do. Yoga and hiking, as well. I do a lot of hiking.
Is this all under the umbrella of yoga for grief that you do?
The yoga that I’m teaching right now is me in my yoga studio here at home in my casita. For the Yoga for Grief, we have Paul Denniston, who’s going to be coming on for the second time. We’ve already had him on Helping Parents Heal. He does yoga that you can do in a chair. You don’t even have to be on the floor. I highly recommend his work. GriefYoga.com is his website. If people are interested in following the classes that I give, it’s Elizabeth Boisson Yoga on Facebook and people can join. I also have a YouTube channel.
I also interviewed Paul. If you would like to know more specifics about what he does and who he is, and he’s lovely, you can find him on the show. Elizabeth, everyone wants to connect with you and Helping Parents Heal. Give them all your particulars. Give them all your websites. Give them all your contact information. Let it rip.
Thank you. First of all, our website is www.HelpingParentsHeal.org. That’s easy. On the website, you’ll be able to find out about all of our recommended providers, all of our recommended reading, as well as our newsletter that comes out once monthly. All of the back issues are on there, since 2012, as well as all of our YouTube videos. We have about 120, 130, or so YouTube videos right now that are split up into different categories and very easy to listen to. A lot of people do that when they’re hiking or walking in the morning.
We also have the Caring Listeners listed on the website. We have affiliate groups that are listed on the website as well, both here in the States and overseas. If you’re wanting to get in touch with me, go to the Caring Listener page because all of my information is there. My phone number and my email address are on there. The phone number and email address for every Caring Listener are on there. We have the time zone of where they live so that you can call. If you can’t find one in one time zone, you’ll be able to find somebody in a different time zone.
People will want to pursue getting in touch from this wonderful interview.
Thank you.
You, of all people, what is your tip for finding joy in life?
The most important thing, and I have believed this ever since Morgan passed, is that we have to understand that, first of all, this journey is all about love. Second of all, helping others helps us more than anyone else. The feeling that you get from being able to know that you’ve pulled someone out of the depths of grief and that you’ve shown them that their children are not gone is the most amazing thing for me. Being able to spend time with these parents every day, that sense of community and knowing that you are not alone is important for all of these parents, but also for me. I love the people that I’ve met on this journey.
Helping Parents Heal: First of all, this journey is all about love. But second of all, helping others helps us more than anyone else.
I also want to tell people that I almost feel, and I know that a lot of these Shining Light Parents feel this way too, that having my two children transition is almost like a gift. I hate to say that because I don’t want people to think that I’m a horrible mother. The incredible people who have come into my life and the incredible things that I have learned, since Morgan and Chelsea have transitioned are incredible. That’s another one of the most important things that I’ve learned and that I’d like to tell other people.
I so resonate with every word that you said because it’s been the same way for me. What was so devastating has become very transformational and a blessing in a lot of ways. It is true. We’re on the same page with all of that. Elizabeth, Helping Parents Heal is such an amazing and inspiring organization. It touches, comforts, heals, and enlightens countless lives.
Thank you for all that you do through Helping Parents Heal to help grieving parents. I thank you from my heart for this wonderful, informative, and healing interview. Here’s a reminder, everyone. Make sure to follow us and like us on social at @IreneSWeinberg on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. As I like to say, to be continued, many blessings, and bye for now.
Guest’s Links:
- Elizabeth Boisson’s Website
- Shining Light Parents mentioned in this episode
- Caring Listeners mentioned in this episode
- Past episodes with Suzanne Giesemann, Dr. Mark Pitstick, and Paul Denniston mentioned in this episode
- George Anderson’s book: Walking in the Garden of Souls
- Life to AfterLife: Mom, Can You Hear Me? documentary
- Paul Denniston’s Website
- Connect with Elizabeth Boisson on Facebook and YouTube
- Helping Parents Heal’s Recommended Providers, Newsletter, YouTube, and Affiliate Groups
Host’s Links:
- @IreneSWeinberg on Instagram
- Irene Weinberg on Facebook
- Irene Weinberg on Twitter
- Irene Weinberg – Grief, Rebirth + Healing Podcast on YouTube
