Akilah, artified by the Rooted Global Village Team

Akilah S. Richards is a grief educator who creates brave spaces for people to learn from and with each other, shedding the walls and barriers that so often keep us isolated and stuck in our pain. Her personal journey has deeply informed her focus on communal support for *non-body death and loss.

This contribution to the grief literacy movement is focused on four core statements:

• Grief and loss can be present in the absence of death

• Grief from emotional realities can be just as difficult as grief that accompanies death

• Grief literacy must include our right to name our pain about non-death related losses

• Some *non-body deaths must not only be accepted, but facilitated and celebrated

  • *Examples of non-body deaths include break-ups, divorce, job loss, changes related to aging and illness, finishing or leaving school, strongly-held-and-unmet expectations, changes in family structure, managing medication, and some stages of parenting.

  THE WORD WE USE FOR NON-BODY DEATH

  https://player.vimeo.com/video/1003857771?h=433fbdf2b6&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

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I’ve been in a grief garden with 18 other people. It's kind of like a container-gardening club, but instead of plants, we tend to our grief. And instead of focusing solely on grief that comes from the death of a person or animal, we focus on death of cycles, relationships, identities, and expectations.

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The path to liberation and wholeness lies not in individualistic approaches to healing, but in the power of collective, embodied practices. ✊🏾

Through years of unlearning, and of embracing more relational, embodied ways of being, I became (and remain) a passionate advocate for liberating ourselves from the shame, blame, and toxic individualism that so often accompanies grief and other difficult emotions.

After years of parenting from an "authoritarian" mindset, I went through a profound transformation and shifted away from the "Western colonial ideas about power, separation, and individualism" that had once defined my approach.

Since 2014, I’ve been working with families (including facilitation within my own family of origin) to examine and release expectations around how people look, how they learn, and how they manage their lives and choices.

• I’ve been featured on NPR, in Forbes, The New York Times, and on Good Morning America.
• I did a TEDx talk on my transition from an "authoritarian parent" to a champion of "raising free people."
• My podcast and book on this unlearning journey further solidified my reputation as a thought leader in the realms of parenting, learning, and personal growth.