12. DEATH FEEDS LIFE ~ Grief, Mourning Rituals, and Grieving with the Earth with Lana Smithner Greenleaf Spiral Deeper

In this episode, our host Gaby Azorsky speaks with Lana Smithner Greenleaf. AND HOLY SHIT THIS EPISODE IS SO GOOD. Lana is the creator of Mourning Rituals, a place for somatic release sessions, death care services, and guided grief support & rituals. She is a certified somatic practitioner, death midwife, TRE® provider, green burial advocate, grief guide, meditation/movement/yoga teacher, ritual maker, and believes that melding healing modalities with art and storytelling is the way forward. 



Lana has a foundation as a multidisciplinary artist and is the director of a community service project that supports all forms of grieving and de-stigmatizes having a relationship with death called “Death, Me, Dying Tree”.
A quote from her website ~ “Recently I’ve begun re-membering mourning rituals that allow us to focus on the exhale, to look to the animals and waters of the world for movements that help to ripple and release our sadness and by doing so, metabolize our grief and pain into heartfelt lung-fuel to continue breathing in life.”



When I started brainstorming the topics I wanted to discuss on Spiral Deeper, grief was at the top of the list. Through the passing of my beloved grandparents, Shirley and Josef Sands, in 2020 and 2021, I experienced grief for the first time at age 24. I felt emotions that I had never felt before, and let myself crash into wave after wave of grief whenever it hit me. 



In our episode today, we flow through a vast depth of topics ~ her path to death and grief work, being in a dynamic of bullying, growing up, wanting to die and ending one’s life, the interconnection of grief and trauma, how we can support our loved ones through loss, we talk about my grandpa, laughing and crying, burials, and grieving WITH the Earth. 



I hope you feel less alone in your grief and sorrow.~



Thank you Lana for your vulnerability and the work that you do!





Connect ~

With our guest Lana and Mourning Rituals | Website and IG @mourning.rituals

With her project Death, Me, Dying Tree 



With out host Gaby Azorsky | Website and IG @gaby.azorsky

With Spiral Deeper | Website and IG @spiral.deeper

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The Retreat Newspaper - Code ‘GABY100’ for your first issue free 





Music by incredible partner, Connor Hayes. 



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