MIND-BODY-SPIRIT
Meditating Through Grief
BY EMILY JENNINGS
heal is just be . To try and do more in order to speed up the process of healing is pointless. In a grief journey, just being alive is often the most courageous act you can perform. When you’re ready to process the loss, you may want to try (or re - turn to) meditation. But remember — as soon as you focus your aware - ness within, the thoughts and emotions you had been pushing out of the way will come to you. They will present themselves so you must process them, front and center in the manifold of your mind. Grief requires you look deeply at the events that have transpired so you can understand, process, and forgive. It may take years for you to finally find acceptance. Go slowly and forgive yourself. Be ready for medita - tion to be a very difficult thing indeed. Meditation can help in grief, but forcing the practice when you can still barely breathe isn’t advised. When your inner world is ready, then you may begin. When a bit of a desire to move forward in life re-ap- pears, it might be time. A dedicated meditation practice is best (in - stead of meditating haphazardly) because it establishes a routine for the mind to heal. If you try to meditate every day, some days you might not “succeed”; but the intention will be set, and eventually, inner heal- ing will commence. It’s inevitable. Although some meditation sessions may be full of pain, you will make progress if you make space for yourself. Honor your grief. Allow it to be what it needs to be. Acknowledge it as part of you and don’t try to separate yourself from it. Meditation can help with the integration process. Furthermore, just because you are dedicated to your inner healing does not mean the progress will be steady. Grief healing isn’t linear. Some days will feel lighter, and then great sadness may wash over you the next day, making you feel as if you have been set back to the early days of your journey. This is just the mind’s way of revisiting the pain - ful experience to find out if the inner chaos has settled yet. It is the way your spirit heals from trauma. You must immerse yourself in the memories over and over until you have the inner calm to process them and find peace. So, if it seems like your meditation practice isn’t working, have pa - tience and persevere. Grief is like a pendulum, and when you medi - tate, you are helping it swing toward the light a little further each time, even if it often seems to swing back into darkness. Give yourself grace and celebrate the fortitude it has taken just to get to this point in your journey. Emily Jennings is a spiritual coach, meditation teacher, and psychic whose work is dedicated to elevating the collective consciousness. She is also the au - thor of a few books, including Messy Meditation . For more about Emily, have a look at her website: www.wellnessoneness.com.
When you’ve experienced loss, sometimes it takes all of the strength you have just to exist. Getting out of bed can be hard, and finding a reason to make it to the end of the day may be a nearly insurmount- able task. And yet, when you are grieving, do you notice the people around you sometimes give very unhelpful advice about how to heal? Even spiritual friends may tell you to do things that just don’t work when you’re in such a deep state of grief you can barely function. An experience of loss can be isolating and hopeless, even for those of us who have found a soul-level higher awareness. We seek answers when a loved one has transitioned to the next life. No matter how spir- itual you are, it is natural to miss their earthly presence. Meditation may be offered as a way to overcome your pain. For those who have dedicated themselves to the practice, we know many of the answers we seek are found in a deep state of meditation. Meditation can help on a mental health journey when there hasn’t been great (and recent) trauma. At other times in your life, practices such as breath - work and spiritual healing exercises in addition to meditation may make a huge impact on a journey of inner healing. But if you’ve expe - rienced the loss of someone very close to you, you will discover that meditation is very difficult while you process grief. Grief is different. Grief moves in unexpected ways and at its own pace, often surprising you with emotional tidal waves. It doesn’t respond to everyday kinds of healing work; the only thing that seems to change it is time . And even time can often seem powerless to heal your deep sadness. Grief is a great expression of love, and in the moment, it seems as though the passage of time will never heal it. You just have to give yourself space to let the feelings rise and fall within you. To process and heal from a loss, you must submit yourself to the universe’s timeline and release control. Sometimes all you can do to
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