The Mindfulness & Grief exercises are based on the 8 week program developed by thanatologist and meditation instructor Heather Stang. Below you can review the topics offered in the program and the book, as well as a list of meditations and other mindfulness-based practices designed to help you live life after loss.
Table of Contents
WEEK | TITLE & DESCRIPTION | PAGE # |
Week 1 | Mindful Awareness: How to Find Refuge in the Present Moment will show you how your breath and body can be your safe harbor when you are overwhelmed or unsteadied by grief. | 13 |
Week 2 | Conscious Relaxation: How to Care for Your Grieving Body will teach you relaxation techniques that will help you to release tension and steady your mind after a loved one has died. | 35 |
Week 3 | Compassion and Forgiveness: Attending to Grief with Loving-Kindness will guide you through meditative practices that will open a closed heart and engage the healing power of loving-kindness towards yourself and others. | 49 |
Week 4 | Skillful Courage: The Dance of Strength and Vulnerability will help you cope with the rollercoaster of grief as you move up and down between hope and despair. | 67 |
Daylong Retreat | Your Personal Daylong Retreat gives you a “day off” from tending to others and an extended period of time to practice and deepen your newfound mindful awareness. | 77 |
Week 5 | Getting Unstuck: Tending to the Five Mental Hindrances will show you how to meet resistance with curiosity and transform barriers into opportunities for personal growth and awakening. |
93 |
Week 6 | Meaning Reconstruction: Learning to Live After Loss will explain how the processes of sense making and benefit finding will help you honor your loved one’s legacy while continuing your own life’s journey. | 107 |
Week 7 | Allowing Transformation: Who Am I Now? will help you to rewrite your post-loss narrative and tap into the power of meaning-making in spite of uncertainty and change. | 117 |
Week 8 | Perpetual Mindfulness: Practicing Beyond Grief will help you to develop a relationship with your practice so that you can live your life with equanimity and transcend common “practice pitfalls.” | 129 |
Mindfulness & Grief Exercise Index
WEEK | EXERCISE | PAGE # |
1 | Three Part Breath | 27 |
Coming To Your Six Senses | 29 | |
Breath Meditation | 31 | |
Mindfulness Journal | 32 | |
2 | Body Scan | 42 |
Mapping The Body | 45 | |
Conscious Connection | 45 | |
Progressive Muscle Relaxation | 46 | |
Mindfulness Meditation: Breath Awareness | 48 | |
Mindfulness Journaling: My Body’s Story | 48 | |
3 | Embracing Your Heart With Loving-Kindness | 58 |
Mindfulness Meditation: Breath Awareness | 60 | |
Forgiveness Meditation | 60 | |
Metta Prayer Of Loving-Kindness | 63 | |
Mindfulness Journaling: My Heart’s Story | 65 | |
4 | Embracing Vulnerability | 73 |
Walking Meditation | 74 | |
Mindfulness Meditation: Sitting With Dignity | 75 | |
Mindful Journaling: Skillful Courage Letters | 76 | |
Retreat | Mindful Movement | 82 |
Morning Practice | 86 | |
Relaxation Pose | 86 | |
Afternoon Practice | 87 | |
Mindful Eating | 87 | |
Mindful Walk In Nature | 88 | |
Landscape Drawing | 90 | |
Aspirational Collage | 91 | |
Re-Entry and Breaking Your Silence | 92 | |
5 | Walking Meditation | 102 |
Mindfulness Meditation: Tending To The 5 Mental Hindrances | 102 | |
Mindful Journaling: Transforming Roadblocks Into Green Lights | 106 | |
6 | Mindfulness Meditation: Breath Awareness | 116 |
Mindful Journaling: Assumptive Worldview | 116 | |
Continuing Their Legacy | 116 | |
7 | Mindfulness Meditation: The Theater Of The Mind | 126 |
Mindful Journaling: Letter of Transformation | 127 | |
Empowering Action | 128 | |
8 | Relaxation With Choiceless Awareness | 134 |
Mindfulness Meditation: Choiceless Awareness | 135 | |
Mindful Journaling: The Hero’s Journey | 135 | |
Sharing Your Journey | 136 |