Healing continues, yet the pain remains...

Healing continues yet the pain remains… On the 10th anniversary of the SHES tragedy, please send some extra love to our Newtown family today.

For those of you who know the rest of my story, what came next was truly unfathomable. Here's what happened after I surrendered...

There is nothing I can say here that will ever adequately honor this horrific tragedy and in the same breath honor the healing miracles that can and do arise from tragedy.

As usual, I woke up the next morning (12/14/12), meditated, journaled and began my day. What wasn’t usual was my urge to clean out my closet. I had lived in Santa Barbara for years and didn’t need to keep those winter clothes anymore so I started making a give-away pile.

As I was cleaning, I turned on the TV to see the images of what had happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) just hours before. Then my phone rang. It was one of my generous donors – Nick Ortner of The Tapping Solution. I didn’t know he lived in the very town where the mass shooting had taken the lives of 28 people including 20 six year olds. He asked what I would do if I were in Newtown. I replied that I would do what I did in Rwanda - train Newtowners to help heal other Newtowners with EFT/Tapping for trauma relief.

Nick offered to bring me in. I asked for 24 hours to make my decision. I didn’t say yes because I was desperate to know what was next for me. Instead, just like when I received the call to Rwanda, I asked my heart if this was mine to do. I said yes to my heart in the wonder that this might be the next step on my destiny journey.

Three days later I was on the ground in Newtown for what would become the next three years. Apparently, my urge to clean out my closet was a precursor to packing for the trip…

Over the coming days, weeks, months and now decade, it was clear that the world was shocked. The SHES tragedy had ignited fear and panic in the lives of every parent, grandparent, school child, sibling, educator and first responder. Sending our children to school was, and still is, not safe.

Just like so many of us pledged “never again” about genocide, we said “never again” about mass shootings – yet here we are in the US, 10 years and 3500 mass shootings later, with no solutions.
 
I am deeply humbled, along with our amazing volunteers, to have contributed to establishing the world’s first community-based EFT/Tapping for Trauma Healing program in Newtown that continues to this day.

We worked tirelessly and diligently to support those affected by the SHES tragedy.

We found deep fulfillment in being accepted by the community and trusted by so many parents, children, educators and first responders (including the mental health community) who experienced healing and resiliency as a result of our work.
 
While some part of the pain will always remain, we continue to be inspired by the passion, purpose and good works of Newtown families who transformed their unfathomable grief into creating a better world for those left behind.

Your donations allow us to continue bringing hope and healing to those who need it most around the world, even when we can’t anticipate where we might be called to next.


100% of your donations support our fieldwork.

I offer you these gifts from my heart to yours for your continued support:

Our award-winning documentary, When I Was Young, I Said I Would Be Happy: https://www.drlorileyden.com/documentary.?cid=682db250-2da7-4d51-98e6-5fa531add590

Learn more about Surrender and the 5 Stages of Embodied Grace: https://www.drlorileyden.com/5-stages-ebook. ?cid=682db250-2da7-4d51-98e6-5fa531add590