CONTEXT

This week, I lost my grandfather. 💔

Grief arrives like an unwelcome houseguest. It takes up space, disrupts your routines, and doesn't tell you when it's planning to leave.

Picture it barging in without invitation, rearranging your emotional furniture, and making itself at home in the most inconvenient corners of your life.

I didn’t plan to write about my loss publicly. But I don’t think grief is talked about enough.

You see, it isn't just about losing the people you love.

It's also the executive who stares at a cardboard box holding 12 years of career memories after an unexpected layoff.

It's the athlete who wakes up in a hospital bed to learn about their career-ending injury.

It's the person who returns to their apartment that suddenly feels too quiet after a long relationship ends.

Grief is the emotional tax we pay on love, ambition, and connection. And not a single human on this planet gets to opt out.

That's why I wanted to share my simple tips to navigate this terrain— not as a "fix" (because grief isn't something to be fixed). But as a guidepost for anyone else trying to navigate this path.

Here’s my "5-3-1 Method” to honor your loss while moving forward with purpose and even, eventually, joy.

METHOD

5 minutes of Daily Remembrance:

• Start a note on your laptop or open a blank page of a journal

• Every day, spend 5 minutes writing down little details about that person to feel close to them. (Favorite memories together, the way they pronounced certain words, the sound of their laugh, the stories they told)

• If you lost a career, an identity, a relationship, write down your favorite parts of that chapter of your life.

• Look through photos and videos, or hold a memento to jog your memory

This creates a daily "grief container"— allowing you space to feel close, process your emotions, honor your loss. It's like a pressure valve for your emotions.

(Grief tricks us into thinking it’s better to forget—but what a shame it would be to erase something that shaped you into who you are today.)

———

3 Ways to Transform Pain

• Physical: Convert emotional energy into movement (walk, tennis, swim)

• Creative: Express what words can't (paint, play music, cook)

• Service: Channel love into helping others. (Help someone carry groceries to their car, buy coffee for the person behind you, pick something up that their toddler dropped)

———

1 Daily Truth to Remind Yourself Of

• "Both grief and joy can coexist"

• Say this in your head each morning. It’s a permission slip to experience all emotions

• Healing doesn't mean forgetting. (This took me a while to understand.) It means continuing to live on and experience joy the way they'd want you to.

WHY IT WORKS

Every time you create space for grief, you're actually creating space for healing.

The 5-3-1 Method works because it acknowledges a fundamental truth about loss. You don't "get over it." You learn to integrate it into your life in a way that honors what's gone, while allowing you to move forward.

Here's what happens when you practice this method:

• The 5 minutes of remembrance gives grief a dedicated time and place, so it doesn't ambush you throughout the day

• The 3 transformation practices convert pain into something meaningful

• The 1 daily truth recalibrates your perspective, allowing joy and pain to coexist

For anyone who needs to hear this: Moving forward and enjoying life isn't betrayal—It's exactly what your loved one would hope for you.

Much love,

Jade

P.S. If this newsletter helped you, please forward it to someone who might be walking through their own form of grief. Sometimes the most healing thing we can do is connect with others who understand. 🤍

Learn more about The Quiet Rich and read past newsletters here.