25 Oct The Voices of Option B

How do people move forward in the face of loss and find joy again?  Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Operator of Facebook, whose husband Dave Goldberg died suddenly while the couple was on vacation in December 2015.  She has since shared her story of loss and her ability to bounce back in the face of adversity in her book, Option B, and a website: https://optionb.org.

Consider this powerful conversation between Oprah Winfrey and Sheryl Sandberg in a recent interview on the experience of grief.  Here is the link to this interview:  http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/sheryl-sandberg-on-life-after-loss-i-am-awakened-video.

In this interview, there are some key messages, such as the notion of pre-traumatic growth and the idea that we can build our adaptive coping skills early on so that we are prepared for some of the curve balls that life throws us.  In fact, teaching kids ways to lean in to the “suck”, to express even their deeper emotion, and to build empathy and compassion are exemplified in the stories that she tells about her own family’s steps in the process and taking back things that they did when Dave was alive, like playing the game Settlers of Catan and watching Game of Thrones.

Sheryl also shares that every night she writes down three moments of joy in her day as a reminder that with grief and sadness, joy and happiness can coexist.  Her experience has encouraged others to find the path forward and validate that Option B exists. Most importantly, she maintains that resilience is finding love from within.