Shownotes
Rachel lost her dad when she was 27 years old and turned to travel as a way to heal her heart. She built an online community as a way to express her feelings, which quickly grew. Shortly after, she started leading Grief Trips around the world to show others the beauty in travelling while grieving. This is her story, and she is RESILIENT A.F.
Buy the books: https://theglobalresilienceproject.com/books/
About the Guest:
Rachel is the founder of Happy Grieving, a grief community. Her life took a profound turn after the loss of her father at the age of 27. This devastating experience reshaped her perspective and inspired her to dedicate her work to helping others navigate grief in meaningful, transformative ways. Her mission is to create a grief-literate society where open conversations about loss are normalized.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/grief.trips
https://www.instagram.com/happy.grieving/
⚠️ Content Note: Some episodes may contain themes that could be distressing. Please take care of yourself while listening, and don’t hesitate to seek support from a mental health professional if needed.
About the Hosts:
Blair Kaplan Venables is a British Columbia-based grief and resilience expert and coach, motivational speaker and the Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured on media platforms like Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. She is named the Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024 by IAOTP. USA Today listed Blair as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch and she empowers others to be resilient from stages around the world. 'MyStory,’ which is a television show available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play, showcases Blair's life story. She is the host of the Radical Resilience podcast and specializes in helping people strengthen their resilience muscle using scientifically proven methods and guides grieving high performers with her Navigating Grief Framework. The Global Resilience Project’s award-winning book series are international bestsellers, and her fourth book, RESILIENT A.F.: Stories of Resilience Vol 2, will be published in January 2025. In her free time, you can find Blair writing, in nature, travelling the world and helping people to strengthen their resilience muscles.
Links:
https://theglobalresilienceproject.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan
https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan
https://www.facebook.com/BlairKaplanCommunications
https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/
https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project
Alana Kaplan is a compassionate mental health professional based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She works in the mental health field, and is a co-host of the Resilient A.F. podcast. Fueled by advocacy, Alana is known for standing up and speaking out for others. Passionate about de-stigmatizing and normalizing mental health, Alana brings her experience to The Global Resilience Project’s team, navigating the role one’s mental health plays in telling their story.
Engaging in self-care and growth keeps her going, and her love for reading, travel, and personal relationships helps foster that. When she’s not working, Alana can often be found on walks, working on a crossword puzzle, or playing with any animal she sees.
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Transcripts
It was so strange because as soon as my dad died, like, part of me
Speaker:was like, well, I don't want to post about travel right now. Like,
Speaker:this is really, really strange. Like, obviously travel didn't mean anything
Speaker:to me after something so big happened. But then not knowing
Speaker:what to do with my leisure, my spare time, which
Speaker:part of me was going to post on social media? I was
Speaker:like, well, maybe I need to have one about Grace.
Speaker:And also, my brother also wasn't talking to me about how he
Speaker:was feeling and everything. So I was like, if I were able to just
Speaker:show him that it's okay to talk about it and to write about it,
Speaker:it's okay to grieve, then at least
Speaker:I could, like, coy him into, like, liking and reading my posts.
Speaker:But by being like, you have to support my new Instagram
Speaker:and trick him into, like, knowing it's okay. And did he? He
Speaker:did. For a while. I would, like, force him to be like, what did you
Speaker:think of this post? And he'll be like, it's relatable.
Speaker:Welcome to the show Rachel from Happy Grieving. So
Speaker:happy to have you here on Resilient AF with Blair
Speaker:and Alana, who is not currently with us in Australia, but we have
Speaker:you. Hi. Hi. So good to be here.
Speaker:Sitting on the deck overlooking the ocean
Speaker:and Airlie beach, us leading my
Speaker:second Happy Grieving grief trip with you.
Speaker:And it's been a. It's been a ride. And I think let's start off by,
Speaker:like, who are you? Like, who is Rachel? I started
Speaker:Happy Grieving as a community on Instagram
Speaker:about four years ago. So the handle is appy Happy
Speaker:Grieving. And actually I started it
Speaker:about two weeks after my dad died.
Speaker:At that point, it was just my
Speaker:personal diary where I could share what I was
Speaker:thinking and feeling. Whatever I was posting
Speaker:actually came from the fact that I always loved social media. And I had
Speaker:a travel Instagram account back then, which was my personal account as well.
Speaker:And it was so strange because as soon as my dad died, part of me
Speaker:was like, well, I don't want to post about travel right
Speaker:now. Like, this is really, really strange. Like, obviously travel didn't mean
Speaker:anything to me after something so big happened, but then
Speaker:not knowing what to do with my leisure and my
Speaker:spare time, which a lot of was, was
Speaker:part of me was going to post on social media. I was
Speaker:like, well, maybe I need to have one about grief.
Speaker:And also, my brother also wasn't talking to me about how he
Speaker:was feeling and everything. So I was like, if I were Able to
Speaker:just show him that it's okay to talk about it and to write about it.
Speaker:It's okay to grieve. Then at least
Speaker:I could coy him into liking and reading my
Speaker:posts. But by being like, you have to support my new Instagram
Speaker:and trick him into knowing it's okay. And did he?
Speaker:He did. For a while. I would, like, force him to be like, what did
Speaker:you think of this post? And he'd be like, it's relatable.
Speaker:And that's where it began. Really. Actually, let's back up a little.
Speaker:Your dad died. First of all, I am so sorry. What's your dad's
Speaker:name? Tim. May Tim's memory be a blessing.
Speaker:I would love to know all about Tim and what happened.
Speaker:Yeah. Even like four years later, just thinking back to that moment kind of
Speaker:almost emotionally transports me back to that moment. And you feel
Speaker:it. Like, I feel it in my. Right now, it's in my stomach, or I
Speaker:think that's where my stomach is.
Speaker:We don't really know anatomy here. It's below my boobs and above
Speaker:my belly button. Yeah, that's what it feels like. It feels like a slumber is
Speaker:slightly above my stomach. But I don't know what this is. So anyhow, that. That's
Speaker:where I feel it right now. It's like this emptiness where it's like where he's
Speaker:meant to be. And it was.
Speaker:I actually remember that specific moment. I got the call
Speaker:quite clearly. It was a Sunday night, and
Speaker:me and my sister and my boyfriend at the time, and he's
Speaker:my fiance now. We were out for dinner Sunday night,
Speaker:normal dinner, checking out this new restaurant in town.
Speaker:And we had just got home. I think it was around 10:30 or 11:00pm
Speaker:and I got a call from my sister. And
Speaker:she basically said to me, I don't even
Speaker:remember the words anymore. It was just basically, mom called, Dad's in hospital.
Speaker:Something's wrong. Oh, gosh.
Speaker:That's when I called my mom and got the story from her about what
Speaker:has been happening. And even at that point, it was really hard
Speaker:to figure out how much of it was.
Speaker:What was the real story, what was actually happening, how ill
Speaker:he was. Like, I didn't believe
Speaker:at all that he was gonna be in that big a problem.
Speaker:Yeah. And
Speaker:yeah, it was 11:30. And I remember the first thing I was thinking,
Speaker:because it still wasn't real at that point, was, oh, what do I do about
Speaker:work tomorrow? So where was he and where were you? My dad was
Speaker:in Hong Kong and I was In London, where I live and work. And
Speaker:how long of a flight is that? Like 14 hours. So what did you
Speaker:do? First thing was
Speaker:immediately called my mom. Is this a go home, back to Hong Kong
Speaker:thing? And she was like, I don't know.
Speaker:But the fact that she said, I don't know for us meant that, yeah, you
Speaker:better come home. And at that point, it was in the middle of the lockdown.
Speaker:So in order to get on a flight, there was a couple of things we
Speaker:needed to do, which was to get a COVID test.
Speaker:We also needed a certification to say that we were vaccinated twice.
Speaker:And also we needed to have confirmed bookings to a hotel in Hong
Speaker:Kong for three weeks of lockdown. At that point,
Speaker:it was three weeks in a hotel room. And
Speaker:those hotels are limited supply because there's specific hotels that had
Speaker:the arrangement of the government to be able to do that. And
Speaker:so we were going through the list of hotels,
Speaker:calling, searching online. Each one, it was a list
Speaker:of maybe like 40 one by one. There was no spots in
Speaker:any of them. And then we went on Facebook
Speaker:on these, like, quarantine travel community groups, trying to see
Speaker:if there were anyone who knew how to get a room or if anyone had
Speaker:a room that they didn't need anymore. There were people telling us,
Speaker:oh, call this number. We got a room from that guy.
Speaker:And at the point of making a payment, he's like, on the reference for the
Speaker:bank transfer, make sure you put the word financial aid.
Speaker:And at that point, we're like, well, we know a few things about scams.
Speaker:Like this sounds like a scam. Yeah. So we didn't. But he wanted
Speaker:like, I think it was four grand or something. Oh,
Speaker:my gosh. For three weeks of a hotel stay. That's.
Speaker:Wow. And even before that, it was so surreal just thinking,
Speaker:is it worth 4k to go home to see my dad?
Speaker:Because we didn't know at that point, and we didn't believe at that point he
Speaker:was gonna die. Right, right. So there was the. That that think thought like,
Speaker:is this something we would pay for? And obviously we decided yes.
Speaker:Then we had the fact that it was like, he wasn't Right. Financial aid. So
Speaker:we're like, well, okay, we don't want to get scammed. So we continued that
Speaker:search. It was like a 24 hour or more ordeal.
Speaker:And then the next morning, going to the center to
Speaker:get our Covid tests. At that point, it was a new thing. So it was
Speaker:a 24 hour turnaround. We still needed the actual antigen
Speaker:test. So even if we wanted to leave on
Speaker:the next flight, the first possible one was about two days later.
Speaker:Wow. Didn't sleep. That's wild.
Speaker:So you found a hotel? Found a hotel.
Speaker:There's a lot of begging involved. Wrote an
Speaker:email to the government, like the officials
Speaker:in Hong Kong, saying, when we land, can we please go see our
Speaker:dad? He's in hospital. And they wanted a letter from
Speaker:the hospital saying that he was in critical condition for that to be even
Speaker:considered. So there we go. We went to the
Speaker:hospital, my mom did, actually, and then asked if they could give us a letter.
Speaker:I remember getting that letter that said he was critical.
Speaker:And my reaction was, yes, we got the letter, because
Speaker:then we can go see him. Right. It never actually crossed my
Speaker:mind. Critical means he was gonna die. And, like,
Speaker:isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting what
Speaker:your brain allowed you to perceive at that time?
Speaker:Don't know. Yeah. It just never crossed my mind that he was
Speaker:gonna die, like, up until the minute he did. So you get on the
Speaker:plane, you have the letter. You get on the plane. Yeah,
Speaker:getting on the plane. Plane. That
Speaker:was troublesome as well, because my sister's
Speaker:Covid certificate didn't have her middle names, so it
Speaker:didn't match her passport. Oh, gosh. And so we were at the. At
Speaker:the airport trying to convince the person who was checking people in to
Speaker:let us on. I think I got a little bit aggressive with them. You're
Speaker:like, look, here's the letter. He's critical. And he basically
Speaker:threatened if we were going to, like, raise our voices, that he would
Speaker:get the cops to not let us, to, like, sort us out, basically.
Speaker:Oh, my God. Yeah. And it's like, you know, this is not a normal
Speaker:situation at all. Like, trying to beg somebody to let you on a
Speaker:flight that you've been on a hundred times in the past.
Speaker:Yeah, that's terrible. So they let you. Your sister. They let us on. They actually
Speaker:even gave us an upgrade in the end. Yeah, Business
Speaker:class. But, you know, at that point, it doesn't even
Speaker:cross your mind that it's anything special. You're just. Just trying to get home.
Speaker:You're just trying to get home. And I remember waiting in the lounge
Speaker:with my sister on video with my family, my mom
Speaker:and my brother. And I remember seeing his.
Speaker:My dad's face in the video,
Speaker:and it was like, just watching him change colors,
Speaker:like, just going a bit pale, and just
Speaker:purple is the only word I have for it, really. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And being like to my mom, do
Speaker:something about it. Go get the Nurse get them to do something.
Speaker:And then going on the plane thinking that not knowing if
Speaker:that was the last time we would be able to really talk to them. And
Speaker:I say that very generously because she was already sedated by
Speaker:them, so. So there's also that question of whether he even knew
Speaker:we were on the phone talking to him. So you landed 13 hours
Speaker:later? 13 hours later. And
Speaker:an hour before that he had passed away. So we
Speaker:actually never made. We never even get there before he died.
Speaker:How did you find out? We had WI
Speaker:fi on the plane. WI fi on the plane? Like blessing and a
Speaker:curse. Yeah. We fell asleep because
Speaker:my mom's phone had run out of battery.
Speaker:So we were just. There was
Speaker:nothing we could do on the plane, so we slept. And I remember just waking
Speaker:up and just feeling bad about
Speaker:whatever that moment was. And that was kind of when we found
Speaker:out that he passed away already or was passing away. I thought he called
Speaker:new. Yeah. So hard.
Speaker:Yeah, I know. It's just terrible.
Speaker:So did you still have to go to a hotel for three weeks? Yeah,
Speaker:Three weeks. So your dad dies.
Speaker:Did you get to see your mom or anyone? No. Straight away. It was the
Speaker:normal procedure for anyone traveling to Hong Kong at the time
Speaker:you land on the airport, you do your COVID test there and they shuttle
Speaker:you immediately to your quarantine hotel. And then from there you're staying there
Speaker:for three weeks. You get fed by a
Speaker:centralized system where they deliver food every day to your room, but you're not
Speaker:even allowed out for a walk. So what did
Speaker:you do for those three weeks in the hotel? One of them.
Speaker:You started an Instagram account? Yeah.
Speaker:Like what would walk us through, like what was life like now? That
Speaker:just changed. It was such a
Speaker:blur, honestly. Such a blur.
Speaker:There are a few moments that I remember
Speaker:of that three weeks, like opening the front
Speaker:door, which is what we do to get our meals, and noticing a pile up
Speaker:of food because I had forgotten to get my food for like last
Speaker:two or three days. So there'll be like nine meals
Speaker:and just not even feeling hungry at that point and not even realizing
Speaker:how much food was like just sitting outside. I
Speaker:don't think I could really tell the difference between day and night
Speaker:either. So I don't think I was sleeping properly.
Speaker:Shower was just not a thing I even thought about.
Speaker:Were you with your sister or did you have your own room? I was with
Speaker:my sister. That was also interesting. Very interesting, but
Speaker:also very tough. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So that sounds really hard. Like on a
Speaker:non grief trip, even being Secluded in this room for
Speaker:three weeks. Yeah, I've been telling people it was two weeks because I
Speaker:totally forgot it was three weeks. Your body's three. Your
Speaker:brain's protecting you from that because that's really traumatic when like you find out
Speaker:there's something so devastating you can't be with other people. Like
Speaker:your sister was there, but like your mom and your brother.
Speaker:So when the three weeks quarantine was up, what happened?
Speaker:Well, a lot was happening before it was over. I was calling
Speaker:the funeral parlors from this quarantine room. So
Speaker:your dad, you waited, that all? Waited till you're out of
Speaker:quarantine? His funeral? Oh yes, his funeral was
Speaker:waiting for us, which isn't ideal because, you know, with the body
Speaker:and everything, you don't really want to wait that long. But
Speaker:then that's what we had to do. So I was like planning the funeral
Speaker:from this quarantine room, calling the funeral
Speaker:halls, like asking for
Speaker:prices for a funeral. Like that's just so ridiculous like that,
Speaker:that memory of that. And my brother was in the middle of applying
Speaker:to secondary schools in the UK because that was what
Speaker:he and my dad had started. And so the
Speaker:deadlines were those two weeks. And
Speaker:probably the most of my time was spent in the quarantine rooms helping my brother
Speaker:with that stuff. Yeah, sounds like
Speaker:it was a good way, like, I mean, a good
Speaker:distraction. I don't know. Yeah, I mean
Speaker:helping your brother applying and planning a funeral
Speaker:is not a good distraction at all. And I know how you feel.
Speaker:Yeah. So you get out of quarantine now you have a funeral that you've
Speaker:planned from quarantine, You've started your happy
Speaker:grieving account.
Speaker:The account was there, but it was barely anything at that time. I didn't even
Speaker:really post anything. I just kind of started the account after
Speaker:the quarantine ended. I remember going out onto the streets of Hong Kong
Speaker:at that time. Actually death
Speaker:anxiety was super high in my family
Speaker:because it was beginning of COVID There was like
Speaker:some vaccinations going on in Hong Kong, but it was the beginning of the
Speaker:rollout and somehow we had gotten ill
Speaker:during the quarantine as well. So my sister was very worried that I
Speaker:was ill and I would like pass on something
Speaker:deadly to the rest of my family. So she had asked
Speaker:me to stay somewhere else for the first week after quarantine.
Speaker:So I was still self quarantining for my family.
Speaker:And I remember trying to go out to get food
Speaker:and just walking along this bridge near where I was staying and
Speaker:just Looking at the people around me and feeling like, like, where are they going?
Speaker:Like, how can there be people just going about
Speaker:their days? What are they doing? Where are they going when
Speaker:my world has just completely stopped?
Speaker:Just felt like I was in a different dimension. Yeah. And
Speaker:just kind of parallel living. But they couldn't
Speaker:see me. Yeah.
Speaker:So hard, Rachel. It's so hard. And like,
Speaker:that was four years ago. Four years ago.
Speaker:It's a lot. Like, a lot has happened in those four years,
Speaker:including you starting Happy Grieving's account
Speaker:and grief trips.
Speaker:Should we talk a bit about the transition
Speaker:from, like, pandemic
Speaker:grieving daughter, which you still are, to starting this Instagram
Speaker:account that helps probably hundreds of thousands of people,
Speaker:to taking Grievers on trips around the world? Yeah,
Speaker:sure. It comes
Speaker:from, well, happy and grieving and grief trips I see as slightly different
Speaker:things. They are definitely built on top of each other.
Speaker:But Happy Grieving to begin with was my personal journal.
Speaker:I was very happy to write about my
Speaker:experience and how I'm feeling and
Speaker:to post it online because you see all these comments coming in,
Speaker:especially on their personal direct messages. People
Speaker:would be like, whoa, I read what you wrote. I
Speaker:have never been able to put it to words, but you did. And I feel
Speaker:like you totally understand me. And I feel less alone that way.
Speaker:Like, thank you for what you're doing. Like, these messages
Speaker:came in very frequently, like, on a daily basis.
Speaker:And it was another reason why I kept doing it. Along with that,
Speaker:it was my own healing as well. Just putting my thoughts down to words because
Speaker:it was always one of the ways I process. Yeah. And you're a
Speaker:beautiful writer. Thank you. And
Speaker:over the years now it's like, every month there's a
Speaker:hun. Like every month there's probably 1.5
Speaker:million views of the things I'm posting.
Speaker:I can't Even imagine what 1.5 million people
Speaker:looks like. That's massive.
Speaker:And the idea that not only do I have an audience
Speaker:for my thoughts, but also that there's equally as many people
Speaker:feeling seen from an account
Speaker:that is not afraid to be raw and
Speaker:honest and very. Just jump right into what
Speaker:everything about grief is like.
Speaker:So how. Okay, so Happy Grieving started off as your journal, and now
Speaker:you also have the account Grief trips. We're on a grief trip. Let's stuck with
Speaker:that, huh? So I've always loved traveling.
Speaker:You've been everywhere. I've been everywhere since even before my dad passed away.
Speaker:But not Peru one day and not Mexico yet. Yeah. And
Speaker:after my dad passed away, I was at
Speaker:home for the most part, just in my room for most of
Speaker:it as well. Until some point it was just like, well,
Speaker:I've done enough bedrotting and I wanted to do something
Speaker:else. And it kind of happened by accident because I had
Speaker:never traveled solo at that point. And a friend of mine was going to
Speaker:Italy for a wine course, and he was one of the
Speaker:first person that I met up for like a brunch since then.
Speaker:And he was like, oh, why don't you just come with me and these two
Speaker:other ladies that he's traveling with? And it's going to
Speaker:be fun. We're going to do our wine things. You can come
Speaker:along if you want to. I think he said it
Speaker:out of pity, because at that point I was like. He was asking me what
Speaker:my plans are, and I clearly have no plans, but I said, okay, I'll come
Speaker:along. And I
Speaker:decided that I would do, like two days with them and then the rest on
Speaker:my own. And it was
Speaker:really nice just being out traveling again and just being a different
Speaker:country. And even though it felt really different, like, I'll look at
Speaker:a sunset and be like, oh, I know it's beautiful, but I somehow just
Speaker:don't connect to the beauty of it. But even that felt better than
Speaker:just looking at the top of my ceiling and my bedroom.
Speaker:Right. And I also remember
Speaker:being in a cafe with them at one point and just looking at
Speaker:him and being like, this is the first time I felt you even alive since
Speaker:my dad died. And that was around six months on.
Speaker:Yeah. And since then, it was just solo
Speaker:traveling, trying to find what I was not
Speaker:even sure what I was looking for at that point.
Speaker:And it turned out that it was no longer the
Speaker:food that made me interested, or even the
Speaker:landscapes or even the things to do, but it were the people that
Speaker:I was meeting along my trip. And there were so
Speaker:many who also in, like, the most
Speaker:random situations, I'll get talking with them.
Speaker:And sometimes they would even bring up first. So it
Speaker:wasn't even me with my dead dad vibes, which is what I suspected.
Speaker:But they would tell me that they lost somebody, and
Speaker:the connections there, they felt really, really like what I needed at that
Speaker:moment. Yeah. So
Speaker:solo traveling really helped you heal. You met amazing people
Speaker:and then you decided, I'm going to lead a grief trip. Yeah. I was basically
Speaker:just, how do I replicate this
Speaker:one year worth of solo traveling and meeting 20 different people with
Speaker:different stories? How do I combine that and
Speaker:condense it into, like a week or two weeks experience? Experience,
Speaker:because not everyone can take that whole year off.
Speaker:And that's where Creatures is born. It's people who resonate with the idea
Speaker:of healing whilst also pursuing
Speaker:meaningful experiences and also connections. And I thought, if
Speaker:the right people, and by right, I mean whoever resonates
Speaker:with this come on the same trip, then
Speaker:the experience will grow organically. I love
Speaker:it. Traveling is, like, one of my most favorite things to do. And I went
Speaker:on my own, like, eat, pray, love, seek place, lay adventure,
Speaker:like, to Africa, like, you know, Ghana, Uganda, then to
Speaker:Croatia. And there was so much healing that
Speaker:happened on that trip. And also after integrating the lessons I've learned
Speaker:from the people I met around the world. And I just want to say,
Speaker:like, I know you, because I saw you, your Instagram account and
Speaker:I saw you promoting the Bali trip, and I was like, let's get on a
Speaker:call. Because my life's work is to help people through their grief.
Speaker:And for you, having these grief trips, I'm like, this would just be such a
Speaker:beautiful synergy. Like, let's make some magic. And I
Speaker:invited myself. I invited myself to work with you.
Speaker:I remember that call very well. Yes. She was like, okay,
Speaker:who's this crazy Canadian? It worked out.
Speaker:Yeah. No, it works out perfectly because we're very much on
Speaker:the same mission, and a mission that kind of comes
Speaker:from the heart. Yeah, it's very. We're very much part of
Speaker:what we're trying to build as well. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker:definitely. And, like, so, like, I come in as the co
Speaker:facilitator, but as you. So you do some trips on your own, and the
Speaker:trips that we have coming up, we're doing together, and there may be other trips
Speaker:that I. Not part of. So she does other trips on her own.
Speaker:But so right now we're in Australia, and together we did Bali. And
Speaker:upcoming, we have. We have a whole collection of really cool trips
Speaker:coming up. Should we share what we're doing? We have
Speaker:mall dives coming up next. And there's still space. There is.
Speaker:We're around 50% full already. And there's still a couple of months to go.
Speaker:Yep. In February. Yep. But it's better to be warm inside
Speaker:sad than golden sad. Yes, that's true. It is
Speaker:true. And I. I chose Maldives. Is it
Speaker:Maldives or Maldives? I don't actually know, but you. Whatever you said sounds good with
Speaker:your accent. I thought it was Maldives, but I don't know. Well, I chose that
Speaker:specifically for February 14th. It was
Speaker:ending that day. And it's. Some people might look at it being
Speaker:like, oh, that is. That is jarring. Like, you know, Maldives being a place where
Speaker:people go on their honeymoons. Oh, I didn't even like. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And it was kind of on purpose because a lot
Speaker:of people have losses that are their partners.
Speaker:And I figured that Maldives being one of those places
Speaker:where you kind of save to go with your partner, but
Speaker:maybe some people didn't get the chance to.
Speaker:And to just open up the suggestion that
Speaker:it's somewhere that you can still go. Yeah. You can still go
Speaker:alone or with people who get it. Yeah. And
Speaker:to just transform the idea of this is something that you've lost
Speaker:forever to something that you can still
Speaker:have, but it's just very different. Yeah. I love that.
Speaker:So I'm excited. February is a big grief month
Speaker:for me with both my mom and dad dying in
Speaker:February. And so I love that I kick off grief month
Speaker:leading a brief trip with you, and then I go into my own personal brief
Speaker:week with my sister. So that's going to be really exciting.
Speaker:And there's still some spots. And then we have
Speaker:soon after, two months after, in April, as Bali. Come to
Speaker:Bali. Bali is amazing. Bali is amazing. And it's already the third
Speaker:edition. We've done two Bali grief trips already.
Speaker:One was with Blair and one was with Hebe, who's my yoga
Speaker:instructor, co facilitator. So each trip
Speaker:is quite different. But we're having the third edition with Blair again.
Speaker:Very excited. So that's early April and
Speaker:there's room for you and that we have Portugal.
Speaker:Oh, my God. Portugal. Portugal's so spiritual, too. There's a lot
Speaker:of history there. And that's at the end of August.
Speaker:So second time to Portugal. Portugal. Portugal is actually
Speaker:the original grief trip. The very first one. Yeah. Very first
Speaker:one was there. Actually. We have someone that came on that first grief trip who's
Speaker:now come on her second grief trip and she's here with us in Australia.
Speaker:Yeah. It was a very special place for me because it was the
Speaker:last place my dad traveled to with family.
Speaker:We went to Lisbon together. He
Speaker:absolutely loved it. My mom loved it as well. And instead
Speaker:of going back to London on the day, we decided to book them an
Speaker:extra week in Porto, which I've been before. So that's why
Speaker:Porto was so special for me, that he loved it so much. I
Speaker:love that. Did he drink? He doesn't drink. Me neither. He
Speaker:doesn't drink. Me and Tim. Yeah.
Speaker:And then we're looking at doing. We
Speaker:don't have any other ones till 2027. Right. Nothing
Speaker:that's planned yet? No, but we have a
Speaker:really cool announcement. We don't have the dates yet, but. Oh, you mean
Speaker:Morocco. Yeah, Morocco. You're getting. Making it
Speaker:official before we decide it's official. By the time this comes out, it might be
Speaker:official, but, like, we've been talking about doing a Morocco trip for six months.
Speaker:We think January is a good time. So just January 2027.
Speaker:So Rachel might have other grief trips that happen between August and
Speaker:January, but those are all available
Speaker:to you, and you can come on more than one.
Speaker:Yeah, I. I go on all of them. Yeah, you have to.
Speaker:I go on all of them. And it's really interesting seeing how
Speaker:I'm changing just within, like, the span of
Speaker:one year or even, like, between Bali 1 and Bali 2, which was only,
Speaker:like, three months apart, and noticing how I'm different,
Speaker:even doing the same activities. And it's not because I've done it
Speaker:once. It's just because you're changing. I'm in a different part of my. Grief,
Speaker:and every day we're in different parts of our grief. And,
Speaker:like, you don't have to sit in the deep hardness
Speaker:forever. You have to want to make a change and move the needle.
Speaker:There's lots of ways to do that. And this. These trips are, like, so special.
Speaker:They're so special. And, like, I love that.
Speaker:You know, it feels like a little bit of Tim is with all of us.
Speaker:I feel him a lot when he. When we're here, there's this, like,
Speaker:thing with lotus flowers that keep showing up,
Speaker:and it's so unreal because maybe.
Speaker:Maybe I didn't notice before, but then ever since my first
Speaker:trip, lotus flowers has come up in multiple
Speaker:trips, nearly all of them. And that was my dad's favorite flower.
Speaker:And actually, the symbolism with lotus is that
Speaker:it's something that grows from beneath the mud,
Speaker:and it grows through the mud, and there's still beauty there. Yep. It's
Speaker:like the phoenix rising from the ashes. Yeah. It's the flower version of the bird
Speaker:one. Yeah. Yes. I love that. The lotus and the phoenix.
Speaker:Yes. So as we wrap up, how do people
Speaker:find out about these trips? Right now, it's
Speaker:all through organic social media. And
Speaker:Happy Grieving doesn't see your website. And my website, we
Speaker:had the first person find me through Google to my website.
Speaker:What is the website? It's grieftrips.com. Grieftrips.Com.
Speaker:Yes. And all the information is there. Yeah. And so there's. Yeah, all the
Speaker:pricing, all the information. You want to go. Rachel gets on A call with you.
Speaker:You can message me, and I can connect you. And if you want to see
Speaker:videos of the trip and, like, video
Speaker:testimonials of the trip, then at Reef
Speaker:trips on Instagram is the best, best place to go. Yeah. And.
Speaker:Or you can just trust me that they're awesome. And, like, we work
Speaker:really well together, too. Like, there's a lot of similarities and a lot of differences,
Speaker:and our personalities really balance each other out. So it's exciting.
Speaker:And we always have an age range, early
Speaker:20s to 60s. And it's any type of loss.
Speaker:It's up to you to decide if you want to come on
Speaker:these trips. Like, your grief is for you to define.
Speaker:From what you've seen so far, what do you think?
Speaker:Is there a right time in your grief to
Speaker:join a grief trip? Well, I would say
Speaker:it's up to the person. But we're not just
Speaker:sitting around. There's movement, there's activity. So
Speaker:I know some people's grief is extreme exhaustion where you can't really
Speaker:get out of bed, where here you're getting out of bed. So that might be
Speaker:a good thing to book a trip like this because it might get you, you
Speaker:know, recreating new habits in your brain. But
Speaker:we don't just sit around and talk feelings. We do workshops. We go deep. We
Speaker:laugh, we cry. Yesterday we did this big
Speaker:adventure. You know, lots of beach walking and hiking. And, like, I've
Speaker:been getting, like, 12 to 20,000 steps a day.
Speaker:So you just need to keep in mind that
Speaker:we're gonna get you moving, and that's a big part of healing.
Speaker:So if you feel like you can't get out of bed,
Speaker:it might be a good time to come or know that
Speaker:you can strive to be on these trips when you're ready to get out of
Speaker:bed. And also, we've had people come
Speaker:one month after the loss, or I think it might be three
Speaker:weeks even. And, like, everyone's on their own healing program.
Speaker:But I like to say, like, in my gut, if it's not a
Speaker:heck yeah, it's a no. So if your intuition
Speaker:and you're, like, thinking about it, thinking about it, maybe you sit with it and
Speaker:you just keeps coming up. It's probably time to come on a
Speaker:grief trip, and you don't have to come on the next one. Like, you know,
Speaker:maybe you need, you know, you know, you want to come on a trip, and
Speaker:maybe, you know, you're watching this in December
Speaker:and you maybe think August is a good time. It's good to get that going?
Speaker:Because the trips do sell out. Mm. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:I'm so grateful for her because
Speaker:traveling is my favorite thing to do. Helping people, empowering people to
Speaker:strengthen their resilience muscle. The Global Resilience Project's mission is that it's to
Speaker:help people strengthen their resilience muscle and to bring my Navigating Grief
Speaker:Framework and the journal, the Resilient Life Journal, Put them in the hands of
Speaker:happy grievers or future happy groovers, is
Speaker:such a gift. So I'm just so grateful for you. And, you
Speaker:know, I think also we've talked a lot about resilience.
Speaker:Maybe we end on, like, what does
Speaker:resilience or being resilient AF mean to you?
Speaker:Resilience.
Speaker:It's such a hard one to define, because at different times, it
Speaker:just feels like something different. So today, resilience
Speaker:right now feels like
Speaker:going out to do the things that I still love
Speaker:and being able to make plans for
Speaker:today, the next week, and the next year, even when the
Speaker:uncertainty of what the future would be like
Speaker:is so overwhelming, but still being able to say, okay, this.
Speaker:What I want to do now is right for
Speaker:me, and no matter what the future looks like, I
Speaker:can look back and say, this is what I needed. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker:beautiful. Yeah, I love that. So
Speaker:Rachel and I live on opposite ends of the world. We connect on social
Speaker:via WhatsApp. But I love that we get to meet
Speaker:around the world to help people through their grief, to help
Speaker:people strengthen their resilience muscles. So
Speaker:I think we're done. I think also to
Speaker:mention what grief trips really is. Yeah. Okay, let's. That's a great way to
Speaker:end. Let's just. What is a grief trip? So
Speaker:grief trips is a combination
Speaker:of grief trip is going
Speaker:to a beautiful destination with other people who also get it,
Speaker:and finding your own combination of. Of working on
Speaker:your grief through the workshops that we. That we do,
Speaker:as well as finding new, exciting
Speaker:experiences in those destinations. Like, you
Speaker:could be going to the beach or in a sailing trip
Speaker:or it could be a cooking class. You could be going to a temple in
Speaker:Bali and finding these
Speaker:experiences that you can look forward to, too. Yes. Like, the
Speaker:thing that I hear from people coming on the trips and I really
Speaker:think does define what grief trips is about,
Speaker:is when people tell me, this is something I'm looking
Speaker:forward to, I'm excited to. Grief trips. Yeah.
Speaker:And it's such a bizarre thing for people to say for the first time
Speaker:what to feel for the first time after losing somebody, because
Speaker:it's rare to find something that's exciting. Yeah. And
Speaker:having that is kind of like a
Speaker:lifesaver. Sometimes when you're in that
Speaker:pit of despair, not really having
Speaker:a plan, but having something to look forward to is so important.
Speaker:I love that. I've lived my whole life with always having to have something to
Speaker:look forward to. And I realized I used to be
Speaker:running from something, but now where I am healing, I'm running towards something.
Speaker:And it's a beautiful way to shift that, and I love that. And
Speaker:sometimes with grief, it's good to have those things
Speaker:to look forward to, to feel that purpose or that excitement, because
Speaker:it does exist and it will come back. And you can feel sad and happy
Speaker:at the same time, and all the feelings can exist and you deserve to be
Speaker:happy and to fully live your life while you're still here. Yeah.
Speaker:It's a way of moving through and growing through grief
Speaker:that you can be excited about. And then you leave with
Speaker:friendships that they continue. They continue. They.
Speaker:Last night. This is the kind of friendship that you just. It's soul
Speaker:binding, you know, like, you just. You go back to your own countries,
Speaker:but then just knowing that they're there gives you that strength of
Speaker:not being alone. And you don't have to go through it alone. And you
Speaker:won't actually never see them again because you have them on your phones at
Speaker:any. It's like my pocket community for grief, basically. I love
Speaker:that. And. And we, you know, when you, when you're connected with us,
Speaker:we do have something that we're going to be sharing soon with an online community.
Speaker:So when you come on these trips, when they're done, you're not done. We're going
Speaker:to have an online community that's going to meet and support
Speaker:each other through. In between trips. So. So watch
Speaker:out for that. And thank you so much. Rachel. I am so honored that
Speaker:you agreed to be on our show.
Speaker:You've definitely been saying this since, like six months ago. Oh, I've been saying it
Speaker:since I met you. I'm like, let's get you on the show. Let's put you
Speaker:in the book. And today's the day, guys. It's a miracle. And
Speaker:I'm so happy that you're here with us and I'm so grateful for
Speaker:you. So thank you. Thank you. And I've loved having you on the grief
Speaker:trips. Oh, thank you. And for all of you out there listening, you
Speaker:know, just remember, it's okay to not be okay. You don't have to
Speaker:navigate the hard stuff alone. Let us be that lighthouse in the storm.
Speaker:And remember, you are resilient af.
