Finding Presence In Grief With Ryan Justin Jackson
What if the secret to navigating your deepest grief isn’t moving on, but simply standing still? In this moving conversation, storyteller and communication coach Ryan Justin Jackson shares his deeply personal experience of witnessing his father’s transition and the spiritual awakening that followed. Learn how finding stillness in the present moment can help you navigate the profound trauma of loss, release fear, and reconnect with a love that transcends death. I am sharing my experience of loving the same man for 32 years, a mother to two adult children, a retired military officer, a breast cancer survivor, and my connections with others. Anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts should reach out to a suicide hotline or local emergency number in their country: Psychology Today Suicide Hotlines and Prevention Resources Around the World. — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here Finding Presence In Grief With Ryan Justin Jackson Ryan, welcome to the show. How are you doing? I’m doing amazing, Tina. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here. When you say pleasure and widowhood, what’s the backstory in your mind when you think about that? When I say pleasure, I love the mission of what you’re doing. It’s so fascinating because you reached out to me because you saw a post that I did on grief on TikTok. That is a post that I published in 2025. I had two people reach out to me and say, “How do I get through the passing of my father? How do I get through the passing of my mother?” This is very much needed. A lot of people are reaching out for this. The pleasure is that you’re doing work that’s healing a lot of people. That’s what I appreciate. That’s fair. Who is Ryan? Someone who doesn’t know you bumped into you in the grocery store. You started talking. Who are you anyway? Ryan’s Background And Work I appreciate that. I grew up in Southern California. I’m the son of a motivational speaker in my dad and a mindfulness and meditation teacher in my mother. Between the two of them taught me to go after what I want while still maintaining being in the present moment. I grew up in Southern California, very much like a dreamer. I was a kid who loved to write and create. I played athletics, too. I was always a dreamer in that sense. I love to share stories. Through my work in communication, storytelling, and writing, what I do now is help people find their voice. For people who feel nervous and anxious before they speak, we work on finding their center and their calm. I help them, from there, work on their voice, how they speak, and how they show up in the stories that they tell. I’ve always been a storyteller. I’ve loved to help people do that as well. Thank you. You say we. Who is the we? What is the organization that you do that with? The we is me, myself, and I. I’m strong. Me and the Lord, too. Between us, that’s the work that I do. I’ve worked with various folks with whom we sometimes partner together, but for the most part, I operate independently in this sense. The organization continues to grow. It may include other people eventually. Someone’s tuning in and goes, “I was interested in grief, but I wanted to speak better. I wanted to do better in presenting myself.” How would they contact you? What name is that, if it’s your name or organizational name? They can find me on my website, RyanJustinJackson.com. All of my social media is also at @RyanJustinJackson. I had to add my middle name in there because you do Ryan Jackson, and it’s just a bunch of baseball players that you find. That’s how they can find me. You mentioned your dad. Let’s go back to 2020. Walk us through what happened. Witnessing His Father’s Transition My dad had undergone hip surgery. This was an operation he had been wanting to do for a while. I moved to Atlanta in 2017. My parents called me up a few months later and said, “We’re thinking about moving to Atlanta, too.” I was like, “You guys didn’t tell me that.” “We’re already here. Come through. Check us out. We bought a house.” I was like, “You guys are crazy.” It was crazy because I had moved out here by myself, and then they eventually followed me. They didn’t say they didn’t follow me, but they did follow me. It’s a blessing to have them here. It’s a blessing to have family close, particularly during that time, because it was the middle of the pandemic. I was in the middle of Atlanta. They lived on the outskirts, 45 minutes away. I was working from home. My mom was worn out from trying to care for Dad because being a caretaker is a challenge. She happened to call me that Friday. We speak every day. I called her. I could feel that she was worn down and said, “I have a break in between work. Let me come over there and spend some time with you guys. You can go lie down. I’ll help Dad with stuff around the house.” I showed up at the door. Dad was there with his walker. I knew Dad was an athlete growing up. As a kid, he would run up and down the hill miles and miles at this hill behind our house in Southern California. I always remember him as being this strong man who would run miles and miles. Seeing him there with the walker on was a different contrast. Nevertheless, he was excited to finally start walking again. We sat down. He was fine. We were just having a conversation. I said, “Let me go out and get some food.” I grabbed some food. I came back. He opens the door. I let him in. He
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