Cultural Grief - Cultural grief goes deep. It is that unresolved grief we carry in our bones that form our identities, shared in communities.
I am going to take a guess here—and say I believe many of you receiving my emails are a tad bit worried about our country's well-being over the next four years?
Whether you voted in November for President-Elect Trump or for Harris, there sits uncertainty in any new administration. From where I sit as a Grief Coach, I am hearing from many clients who are in the grips of anticipatory anxiety. And a big part of it is what I call it Cultural Grief.
We grew as a nation through colonial power and control. Certain facts we thought were true and to be celebrated turned out to be stories or folklore we believed to be true in the face of justice. We now know how decolonization works and we pride ourselves as a Woke People to fight for less colonial control and for truth to be heard.
We are a melting pot of many cultural identities and we must acknowledge our colonial guilt in wrongdoings that served our ancestors’ best interests.
Yet we know at the heart of President Trump’s agenda sits the mass deportation of immigrants and greater colonial control. He has been clear about this and yet as a democratic nation, he was elected. So, now many of us face this agenda and fear the worst.
Fear cripples. Fear holds us hostage. And fear causes us to grieve the life we once had or thought we could have living in liberation and freedom of choices.
Cultural grief goes deep. It is that unresolved grief we carry in our bones that form our identities, shared in communities and it is that place of historical trauma, destruction of cultural values and the fear that we are not seen nor valued for the person we are meant to be and for the culture we hold.
It can feel like a rape of our human rights. And when we experience fear we might feel isolated and alone. We may feel numb and unable to take back our power.
Immigration is not new to our nation. We are a blend of cultures, languages, and beliefs. We are the summation of our ancestors, their stories and ways that all immigrants landed onto our shores thinking it represented a new life ahead.
And those who are native to our land are ones who lost rights, property, and often raped of self-respect and more. I know all who are reading this have native lineage or ancestral lineage of families who immigrated here. There is one common bond: there is LOSS. Serious loss that has never been healed.
So here we sit in 2025 facing a political agenda of mass immigrant deportation. We face colonial guilt and shame over what came before us and sometimes we deny the crushing reality of suffering others have experienced and what suffering is yet to come.
If you face the fear of the future here is what I recommend:
● Do not compromise your values, your faith or your hope in what you believe in
● Do not let sit in denial of your grief
● Find your people and share your grief together
● Seek a coach who can support your identity.
● Find ways to advocate so you do not feel powerless.
● And most important, reach a place that is the sixth stage in grieving which is to find meaning. You must find meaning and purpose and feel respected and not allow others who hold power to tell you that you do not belong.
Meaning is only found when you tell your story.
I am a Grief Coach. I begin my work with every client by having them write their story around grief. Once you write it and are not judged on your story, you will move the grief farther out of your body. You will start to see the collective memory you hold of loss and how it impacts your identity today.
Writing to prompts + talking about the healing takes you to a deeper place of release and literally hands you back the power to own your story, address the anger you feel, the shame you might hold onto and you take back the pride in your story and your identity.
You will feel less fear and anticipatory anxiety over what lies ahead.
You become empowered by your story.
I understand the grief sits deep within us. We try to avoid it. Until the loss becomes our reality.
If this speaks to you, vistit my website and reach out to me.