It's OK That You're Not OK

Publisher's Summary

A New Resource for Those Experiencing Loss

With It's OK That You're Not OK, Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides - as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner - Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, "happy" life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.

On this unabridged audio recording read by the author, Megan offers stories, research, life tips, and creative and mindfulness-based practices to guide us through an experience we all must face. With Megan's gentle but direct guidance, you'll learn:

• Why well-meaning advice, therapy, and spiritual wisdom so often end up making it harder for people in grief
• How challenging the myths of grief - doing away with stages, timetables, and unrealistic ideals about how grief should unfold - allows us to accept it as a mystery to be honored instead of a problem to solve
• Practical guidance for managing stress, improving sleep, and decreasing anxiety without trying to "fix" your pain

Many people who have suffered a loss feel judged, dismissed, and misunderstood by a culture that wants to "solve" grief. Megan writes, "Grief no more needs a solution than love needs a solution." It's OK That You're Not OK is a book for grieving people, those who love them, and all those seeking to love themselves - and each other - better.

©2017 Megan Devine (P)2017 Sounds True

Transfigurative treatise on grief

This audio book is articulated with poignant authenticity. It is a seminal work on living with tragic loss. It has personal reflection, research, powerful quotes, and useful activities. I highly recommend this book. I plan to listen to it often. Thank-you!

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

someone understands

this book is a beautifully understanding and gentle reminder that grief is not something you just get over. it has brought me comfort and helped me with some ways I can move forward with my grief.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

By far the best "grief" book

I lost my triplets 5 months into my pregnancy about 4 1/2 years ago. I've read many of books, listened to podcasts, gone to group and private counseling, but this book said it all. I grasped every word and related to every feeling. Grief cannot be healed, it will always exist. Reducing the suffering is the only thing we can control and even that takes times. Allowing one's self to be okay with not being okay is very freeing.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

THANK YOU

The is by far the best book I have read on profound loss.
Finally, a place to find validation and some measure of peace in my truth, without being told how to "fix" my pain, but instead showing me how to live within it, through it.
A million thanks to the author for giving all of us this rare and precious place, this refuge from the well-meaning but clueless masses.
Thank you.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

From a broken heart

This book has helped me with the loss of my daughter. It is a suggested must read for those that grieve

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Thank you!

She really got it. All the sad and ugly truth of losing someone. I’m really glad I found this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

real grief for real people

Megan lends invaluable insight into the world of grief and why it can make us feel so crazy. This book will revolutionize your experience and understanding of our cultural model of grief, how simple tending and pure acceptance is often withheld. You are ok, however you are not ok - feel that, take it in, know you are not alone in tending your loss and new life with Megan, this wonderful book and the brave community of the grief revolution as companions.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Validation for the bereaved

This book has been such an incredible resource for me and those who love me. I have lost two children and this is book validates my feelings and gives advice to those who love the person most effected by grief. It is the book I first recommend.

This book spoke to me

As someone walking her own journey of grief and loss this book spoke to me. I found the different perspectives on grief and loss helpful. Most of all I appreciated the tone in which it was written and read. There is a kindness in the writing of this book, and everyone walking their own loss journey can always use this type of kindness.

This book is my compass on my journey of grief!!

This book has been the most helpful tool i have to guide me through my grief, in all honesty its not only the one book on grief i didn't *skim* through, but i have listened to it 15+ times.. incredibly instrumental through my darkest days! Thank you❤

Wise & compassionate

A wise and compassionate book. Well read. Useful for anyone who has been bereaved, and for those who support them.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great, depending on who is reading

I’m in two minds about this book, so bear with me.
My parent died a few years ago, so I have first hand experience of early stages if grief. I also am a trained bereavement supporter for a nationwide charity.

I feel like this book might be useful for a newly bereaved. They will find thar they are not alone in that experience, the author normalises feelings surrounding the grief through sharing her story. I probably would have liked to reas it when my parent died. However, she mostly focuses on ‘out of order’ death (I understand that as death that wasn’t meant to happen naturally), such like death of a child, death of partner or sibling while still young. There is no mention at all of death of an older parent, for example. It perhaps is ‘in order’ (?), but it still can be incredibly painful to live through. Would I have felt like I should not be grieving so deeply because my bereavement was ‘in order’? I don’t know, but it’s something to gear in mind.

If you are going to read this book as somebody who wants support a loved one through the grief, it might be useful, but I also feel like it also might put you off helping. There is lots of advice on what to do, but even more on what not to do, and it creates this picture that you need to thread on eggshells whilst blindfolded around the bereaved. I felt like there was a fair bit of contradicting advice and author come across somewhat bitter in places.
The underlying message is that you just need to bear witness to their pain and don’t try to fix it.

As a bereavement supporter I feel like have learned more from other books.

Survival Guide

A how to navigate, and what may work as a compass and useful backpack.
Healing hopes for all who need the use of this book.

Well meaning intentions but lecturing

Some empathy. Narrator's deliberate pauses made it sound insincere. Lecturing in places. Unhelpfully spiritually cynical.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful