Thank you so much for visiting. I hope you will find some solace and support in these offerings. Below are the free gifts I mentioned in my interview to help support you in grief as we move into the holiday season and beyond.
Please feel free to send any questions or comments you may have for me via any contact form on my website--these come straight to my personal inbox.
You are also invited to sign up for my newsletter to stay in touch and to learn about new offerings including the upcoming FREE webinar for bereaved parents on December 5th as well as new Yoga for Grief & Loss and Chakra courses and workshops that are in creation phases now.
If you happen to be near Richmond, Virginia on November 19th, join me in person for a half day Yoga for Grief & Loss workshop, Creating Compassion for Your Hurting Heart.
Loving Kindness Meditation
I mentioned in my interview the importance of self compassion and asked the question: "Can you practice as much self compassion and as little judgment as possible for yourself on this journey?" I know this can be really hard. The practice of loving kindness meditation is also known in the Buddhist tradition as "Metta" which means, loving kindness. In this meditation we practice sending love and kindness to ourselves, to others, and ultimately to the world, and into the Universe beyond to all beings everywhere.
This practice can help us move into a state of self-love and compassion, and then further into love and compassion toward others, which softens and opens our hearts, allowing us to carry grief more easily through out our lives. I am a firm believer that we cannot give away what we don’t have. It will not be possible to give or practice genuine love and compassion toward others if we cannot give first to ourselves.
This meditation ends with the chant Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu. This is a Vedic prayer for the welfare and Oneness of all beings and creation, including animals, the earth, and space. It is the closing prayer chanted in many schools of yoga and in Hindu and Buddhist traditions that means: "May all beings be fulfilled; may all beings be as One; may all beings have their needs met."
It also translates as: “May all beings everywhere be content and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that contentment and to that freedom for all.”
This meditation is from my book Yoga for Grief & Loss and can be found in the Bhakti Chapter of the book.
This practice can help us move into a state of self-love and compassion, and then further into love and compassion toward others, which softens and opens our hearts, allowing us to carry grief more easily through out our lives. I am a firm believer that we cannot give away what we don’t have. It will not be possible to give or practice genuine love and compassion toward others if we cannot give first to ourselves.
This meditation ends with the chant Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu. This is a Vedic prayer for the welfare and Oneness of all beings and creation, including animals, the earth, and space. It is the closing prayer chanted in many schools of yoga and in Hindu and Buddhist traditions that means: "May all beings be fulfilled; may all beings be as One; may all beings have their needs met."
It also translates as: “May all beings everywhere be content and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that contentment and to that freedom for all.”
This meditation is from my book Yoga for Grief & Loss and can be found in the Bhakti Chapter of the book.
"Make A Plan" Worksheets
Below are the worksheets for helping you plan for significant and special days when they show up. These are particularly helpful for holidays, but you can also use them to help with other days like death anniversary days or other significant dates as they approach. You can also click here read an article I wrote about getting through the difficulty of these kinds of days.
I have noticed in my own grief journey and in others I have worked with over the years that our bodies and emotions begin to notice the approach of these days as early as 6 to 8 weeks ahead. If you notice times when you are particularly tearful, irritable, more "griefy" than usual, and can't quite put your finger on why things feel more intense, check the calendar and see if there is a significant day approaching the the next month or two. I bet you might find connections. Our cells have memory and our bodies remember long before our conscious minds begin to be aware that these days are coming.
I have noticed in my own grief journey and in others I have worked with over the years that our bodies and emotions begin to notice the approach of these days as early as 6 to 8 weeks ahead. If you notice times when you are particularly tearful, irritable, more "griefy" than usual, and can't quite put your finger on why things feel more intense, check the calendar and see if there is a significant day approaching the the next month or two. I bet you might find connections. Our cells have memory and our bodies remember long before our conscious minds begin to be aware that these days are coming.
Let's definitely stay in touch. I hope these thing are helpful for you.
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Learning some simple ways to calm mind and body through breath, mindfulness and sensory awareness can be so helpful in grief.
Sending love your way,
Karla
