The Grief Series: How Nigerian’s Bury Their Dead, Turn Up for Bereavement Support, and Destigmatizing Mental Health – #010

In this Podcast episode I talk to Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Funmi Olugbemi, we talk about grief, how Nigerians bury their dead; 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 40 days you read right … and dig into the Nigerian culture of bereavement support. We delve deeper into destigmatizing mental health in our Nigerian Community and talk about the purpose of therapy.

Auntie Funmi started her career in New York, starting out as a Master Prepared Nutritionist, later becoming a Registered Nurse. She has been a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner for over 30 years.

She is excited about destigmatizing mental health in the Nigerian community – and she is also working on some upcoming projects.

On This Episode: We talked about what to do and not do when you lose someone; like what do you do when you hear of someone who has had a loss. Should you call, text, visit or do nothing do you wait for them to call you. I did a few things wrong when my dad passed – hahaha, go figure. If I can tutt my own horn I did some really really phenomenal things too. And apparently from a mental health point of view that’s normal because our brain is under a lot of stress and that’s where the community comes in to do the rest. Any little support they can offer helps us in those initial weeks. 

Why the Grief Series Podcast? Why talk about grief? 

As early as March 2020, a lot of people lost someone they held dear to them, it wasn’t until October that I too was personally affected by death. My life changed the day I found out my dad died. Like everything else I do I decided I wanted to share my perspective and to hear from others. That’s how the grief series started, with one podcast episode. As I spoke with people to find that one person to interview I quickly came to understand that GRIEF was very deep and wide and so I created this series. 

Who is today’s Podcast for and who all my Podcast is for?

Loving The Work You Do Podcast really is for everyone (anyone) who wants to find the tools to become better in all they do, to get to that higher version of themselves they were created to be. And this doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with those of us that aspire to be better, what we do know is that to do our highest work and to show up as our highest self we need to be better and that comes from self-awareness.

A few of what we talked about?

• What do you do on day one, who do you call – aunties, uncles, brothers.
• Should you reach out to people or should people reachout.
• This thing will happen, death will happen so maybe we need to have a list of handy.
• How many days does the Nigerian burial go on for, what’s it based on? 
• Should I be reading between the lines of what they said before they passed.
• When do you get over the grief of death….

You can listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcast, Amazon, Audible – Podcast – Just search for LOVING THE WORK YOU DO.

Change Watch: Do This – Is there someone who recently lost a loved one and their name comes to your spirit? Why not give them a call or send a text. You don’t need to write or say the right words, send a text saying: Hi/Hello XYZ, I don’t have any words but just wanted you to know you’re in my mind and prayer. That’s all you need to send!

Sincerely in God’s Joy,

~

Gloria

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