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Making Room for Joy Amidst the Sorrow

By David McCallum

joy

sorrow emotions Grief healing human flourishing loss mental health self compassion

Posted: April 25, 2026

"Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow" - Swedish proverb ("Delad glädje är dubbel glädje; delad sorg är halverad sorg") Sometimes, amidst the deluge of content on social media, I discover something that speaks to me on a deeper level and gives me pause. The above mentioned quote is one such example of this. Take a moment and see what comes up into your awareness as you consider it. Maybe it challenges your preconceived notions of joy and sorrow (e.g. That one must leave before the other can enter), or maybe the dynamic it describes feels familiar to your own experience. Whatever the case, I find that it points toward a more complicated fact of life: the two often co-exist.

Attending to Grief Amidst the Holidays

By David McCallum

grief

curiousity emotions Grief holidays interconnectedness Managing Stress mental health

Posted: December 22, 2025

Grief often amplifies within our systems during the holiday season. From an Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective, grief is not a problem to solve—it is made up of many parts that carry love, loss, and longing. The following prompts gently invite you to meet your grieving parts with compassion and curiousity over the holiday season.

“When Summer Slips Away”: Holding Personal & Global Grief with IFS

By David McCallum

seasons mental health Self Awareness

Enjoying Life self compassion Grief

Posted: August 18, 2025

There is something undeniably tender about late summer; the golden light, the weight of warm air, the growing awareness that something is ending, even as the world still hums along. As August turns the corner, many of us begin to notice the quiet ache of grieving parts within our systems – some of these may be harder for us to name. They might be cued by the sadness of summer fading, or the anticipation of what's ahead. Or, it could be something even deeper: a mix of personal and global sorrow that feels too much for our systems to hold all at once.

Midwinter Warmth

By David McCallum

mental health

internal family systems Grief Winter self compassion

Posted: January 19, 2025

The winter months in the temperate world can be a challenging time for many. With increased darkness, colder temperatures, and perhaps lower energy and mood, these months often seem imbued with a sense of grief. I’d invite you to consider your own experience of winter.

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