Grief one day at a time: Meditation and Mindfulness for Loss 

“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” 

Leo Tolstoy

Losing a dear person in your life, someone you deeply care about, and even something you care about can cause a lot of grief. Although grief is an emotion that is universally felt, many people find it difficult to accept or manage. Grief is often stigmatized and misunderstood. Starting a meditation practice and using mindful living methods for grieving can be helpful if you struggle with the emotion and allow us to deal with grief one day at a time.

This article will outline ways to use meditation and mindfulness to help with your suffering.

Why use meditation? 

Everyone experiences grief at one time or another. However, many attempts to lock away suffering can leave the grief lingering, unresolved and more substantial. When we practice meditation on grief and loss, we allow ourselves the freedom to feel what we are feeling, even if it is numb sadness. You create an environment that allows our emotions and pain to surface. What can then follow is fantastic: a cathartic release that leads to healing. 

How to Meditate for Loss 

Find a comfortable and quiet place. You can either close your eyes or lie down while grieving. These are some tips to help you guide your daily grief meditation.

• Start by focusing your attention on your breath until you reach a relaxed meditative state.
• Don’t judge yourself if you feel sadness or grief. It would be best if you did not try to suppress or avoid them. Just let your emotions come, flow and go.
• Observe where you feel your emotions. Then visualize sending positive white light of love to these feelings.
• If you feel that there are things you should say to your loved one, picture them in your space. Talk to them and let them know what you think.
• End your session by inhaling loving white positive light through your nose and allowing it to permeate your entire body.

Mindfulness and Loss

Mindfulness refers to a way of living that allows us to be aware of the present moment, including our thoughts, feelings, physical experience and the world around us. Although mindfulness is often associated with meditation, meditation can be used to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness can be integrated into all aspects of our lives, allowing us to live in every moment, even though it is temporary. Mindfulness is the ideal tool for loss and a grief one day at a time mentality.

The Winding Road of Grief 

There are two ways that many people deal with grief. Either we are consumed by our pain. On the other side of the spectrum, we do our best to avoid the emotions and pain of suffering so that we don’t become consumed.

Mindfulness and impermanence remind us that sorrow and pain are temporary, like all other emotions. Is this to say that grief is gone? Unfortunately never. It does, however, mean that it is fluid and a forever changing shape.

It will sometimes be like a stab to the heart or a thick fog we are lost in, and you might feel some relief for others. Accepting this fact, even if only rationally, may help reduce our need to avoid grief. Even though it may seem like grief is constant, suffering can be acknowledged that it is not permanent.

4 Mindful tips for coping with loss and suffering

Healing after loss daily meditations for working through grief – Book Recommendation. 

I recommend the book Healing after loss daily meditation for working through grief’ by Martha Whitmore Hickman. This book offers ways to use daily grief meditations and mindfulness practice to help cope with suffering from loss. It is a great companion to support you and use whenever you need to find a place to help ease your sorrow and find a guiding light. I recommend the ‘healing after loss book’ to everyone I know.

Final Thoughts: ‘Grief One day at a Time’ mentality

Daily grief meditations and mindfulness practices are valuable tools we can use to help find comfort and understanding after we have suffered the loss of a loved one. Taking the approach of ‘grief one day at a time’. , allows us to acknowledge our suffering and give thanks and gratitude to those who have left us.

Always remember that you are not alone in your suffering. At some point, we will all experience significant loss and sadness. Grief is a universal emotion we all suffer. Also, if you are struggling, don’t feel ashamed or worried about seeking professional help for guidance and healing.

You can find additional help and support here.