THE 10 FREQUENCIES OF GRIEVING AWAKE

These ten frequencies are a way of being that allows Truth to become embodied until your life naturally becomes an expression of Light. Truth releases your Light. Faith follows your Light. Trust aligns action with your Light. Surrender removes what blocks your Light. Forgiveness frees your Light. Live as Light embodies your Light. Give as Light radiates your Light.

Present Moment Awareness is the practice of bringing your attention fully to what is happening right now, without becoming lost in thoughts about the past or future. It is a state of conscious presence in which you observe your experience with openness, curiosity, and acceptance, allowing life to be met directly as it unfolds.
It is not about emptying your mind, suppressing difficult emotions, or pretending everything is okay. It is about remaining awake to your life exactly as it is.
When you become present, you stop living from memory or anticipation and begin responding to life with greater clarity, peace, and authenticity. Presence is where healing, wisdom, and transformation become possible.
Radical Acceptance is the practice of fully acknowledging reality as it is, without arguing with it, resisting it, or wishing it were different. It does not mean approving of what happened, liking it, or giving up. It means recognizing that this moment is already here.
Acceptance is not resignation. It is the courageous decision to stop fighting reality so you can begin working with it.
When we release resistance, we reclaim the energy that was trapped in denial and suffering. From that place we can respond to life with greater freedom, clarity, and choice.
Self-Kindness is the practice of becoming a safe place for yourself. It is the practice of meeting yourself with the same gentleness, patience, and compassion you would naturally offer someone you deeply love. It is the willingness to remain on your own side through moments of grief, failure, uncertainty, and pain, rather than responding with criticism, shame, or self-abandonment.
Self-kindness is not self-pity, lowering your standards, or avoiding responsibility. It is recognizing that growth happens most naturally in an atmosphere of compassion, not condemnation.
When you learn to treat yourself with kindness, your nervous system begins to soften, your heart becomes more open, and healing unfolds with greater ease. Self-kindness creates the inner safety needed for courage, transformation, and love to emerge.
Forgiveness is the practice of dissolving the judgments that keep your Light hidden. It is the willingness to release the lies you have believed about yourself, others, and even God, so that Truth can be revealed once again. Forgiveness does not change the past. It changes the lens through which you see it.
Forgiveness is not approving of what happened, forgetting your pain, or pretending injustice never occurred. It is the courageous choice to stop making war against yourself and to allow grace to dissolve the judgments that have separated you from your own aliveness.
As judgment dissolves, what was buried begins to emerge. Your compassion, creativity, courage, tenderness, and love were never lost. They were simply waiting beneath the pain. Forgiveness rescues the Truth and allows your soul to shine again.
Truth is the practice of opening yourself to Reality as it truly is. It is the willingness to receive more Truth than your current identity can comfortably hold, allowing every illusion, fear, and false belief to dissolve in its presence. Truth is not something you create. It is something you receive, remember, and embody.
Truth is not personal opinion, intellectual knowledge, or simply "speaking your truth." It is alignment with the deeper intelligence that animates all life. As Truth is revealed, your authentic nature is revealed with it.
Truth is what lights you up. Every Truth you embody releases more of your soul's unique qualities into your life. It is the beginning of remembering who you have always been.

Faith is the practice of saying yes to Truth before you have evidence that it will work out. It is the willingness to continue walking toward what your soul knows, even when your personality cannot yet see the destination. Faith allows you to remain open to possibilities greater than your current understanding.
Faith is not blind belief, wishful thinking, or denying reality. It is an active relationship with the unseen intelligence that continually guides your unfolding.
As faith deepens, fear loses its authority. You begin living from what you know in your soul rather than what your circumstances appear to say.
Trust is the practice of relaxing into the wisdom already moving through your life. It is the growing confidence that the same creative intelligence that brought you here is capable of leading you forward, one revelation at a time. Trust allows you to cooperate with life rather than constantly trying to control it.
Trust is not passivity or certainty that life will unfold according to your preferences. It is the willingness to remain available to what Life is revealing, even when you cannot yet understand why.
The more deeply you trust, the more clearly you begin to recognize the signs, synchronicities, guidance, and quiet knowing that have been present all along. You are never NOT trusting something - doubt is trust in limitation.
Surrender is the practice of releasing your attachment to how life should unfold so you can participate in how it is unfolding. It is opening your hands to something wiser than the thinking mind and allowing Truth to reshape you from the inside out.
Surrender is not giving up, becoming passive, or abandoning responsibility. It is letting go of resistance while remaining fully engaged with life.
In surrender, life stops feeling like something happening to you and becomes something moving through you. You discover that peace is found not in controlling the journey, but in cooperating with it.
Live as Light is the practice of embodying the Truth you have received until it becomes your way of being. As your soul's qualities emerge into daily life, your choices, relationships, work, and presence begin reflecting your authentic nature. You no longer seek the Light because you recognize that you are here to express it.
Living as Light is not trying to be enlightened, perfect, or endlessly positive. It is allowing the Truth of who you are to become visible through the way you live.
You become what once inspired you. Your life grows increasingly congruent with your soul, and your outer world begins to reflect the inner Light you have embodied.
Give as Light is the natural expression of a soul that has remembered what it is. When you are no longer trying to earn love, prove your worth, or fill an inner lack, giving ceases to be effort. It becomes your nature.
Giving as Light is not self-sacrifice, people-pleasing, or giving to receive approval. It is the effortless overflow of a heart that has learned to receive. You never give anything other than what you truly are.
Like the sun, Light does not try to shine. It shines because that is its nature. In the same way, as you embody Truth and live from Love, your presence becomes your greatest offering. The Consciousness of Love naturally extends itself through you, and your life becomes a blessing to the world simply because you have become fully yourself.

THE SIX GATES OF GRIEF

The six gates of grief can be thought of as areas that bring up grief or our pathway into the feelings of grief. This may or may not be gone over in more depth in your community grief ritual. As you read this list, feel into your body. Feel free to use these as journal, song, or movement prompts.Gates 1-5 are introduced by Francis Weller in his book "The Wild Edge of Sorrow"

This gate refers to the natural grief we feel when we lose someone or something dear to us. Death, breakup, or other changes (having a baby, retiring, etc.). Partners, pets, parents, trees, homes, jobs, faith, etc. Even a choice to change something of your own free will can bring grief.
This is about parts of ourselves that have been neglected or unloved, often leading to feelings of low self-worth or shame.
This gate recognizes our capacity to feel the world's pain, like environmental destruction or the suffering of others. This gate brings anger and outrage (which may initially come out as aggression/intent to harm, but technically anger and aggression are different). This gate is for systemic harm; accepting the reality that this harm is happening makes it easier to set a boundary: "THIS HAS TO STOP."
This gate is about the grief that comes from not receiving the nurturing, love, or support we needed at different stages of life. It's also about the collaboration of community that our spirit expected, but did not receive.
The fifth gate is about the inherited grief from our ancestors, which can be passed down through generations through behavior, epigenetics, and collective memory. (See this potent TED talk on intergenerational trauma by Serene Thin Elk)
This gate includes personal harms we’ve caused, to ourselves and others, as well as collective harms we’re complicit in, such as racism, patriarchy, capitalism, ecocide, human supremacy, and inequity.