Honouring your grief

Allowing yourself to process your grief

Grief can be complicated, overwhelming and isolating. You might find yourself trying to stop yourself from feeling your emotions, or pushing away your thoughts. When we block ourselves from feeling and processing our full grief, it can become stuck and congested in our bodies. Remember that while there is no one way or right way to feel your feelings, sometimes we can also become stuck if we’re unsure how we should feel or how to start processing our feelings.

Certain stretches and practices can help your body open up in ways that encourage emotions to come up and then out of the body. Sometimes guided practices in meditation or yoga can be helpful for processing. If you’d like to try this, here’s some guided yoga stretched for grief and loss: Restorative Yoga for Grief or Loss (35 minutes)


Creating a sacred space for yourself to honour loss

For some, it can be helpful to create a space to honour the person you have lost. Below you can find some tips on creating an intentional space, but keep in mind – you can make your space as big (such as a dedicated corner of a room) or as small (such as an item you can hold) as you choose.

  • Start by choosing a specific memory – a positive one – that can help set a nostalgic and warm tone.

  • You might paint the space, or place items of certain colours that reflect this memory, or the specific mood you want to create. E.g. if you are thinking of a beach trip, this might look like shades of blue and green. Perhaps it was a Pride parade and full of rainbow colours?

  • Include any sentimental objects that bring you comfort and help you think of them and honour their memory.

  • Consider displaying any words that represent the person and your connection to them. Perhaps it’s a poem, song lyrics, or a particular text message?

  • Include comforts for yourself that help you to sit in your emotions and process them – tissues, a blanket, perhaps a pen and notebook for writing your thoughts, anything sensory that might be helpful - textures, an extra light, no light etc.

  • Acknowledge this intentional space as part of your healing journey. You can create it or separate from it as you need to, knowing that it is there as a truthful, safe and predictable space you’ve gifted yourself to allow your feelings and honour the memory of your person.