I wish that life should not be cheap,
But sacred.
I wish the days to be as centuries,
Loaded,
Fragrant.
For times of grief,
It can be helpful to allow what's there to be there,
And to open into a space of wonder and gratitude.
You may ask,
How do you allow what's there to be there?
When we feel very challenged by something,
All we can do sometimes is to simply wait it out,
To be with our actual feelings as they happen,
To experience them in the body,
And to let them flow.
Oftentimes it means allowing yourself to cry,
To express yourself to a friend,
And to allow yourself to grieve with all of the complex emotions that want to present themselves.
In a safe,
Protected place with loving people by your side,
It can be very healing to allow yourself to fall apart,
To sense the humility in yourself,
Knowing that many terrible things have happened in the past and will happen in the future,
And that you have the courage to acknowledge your losses,
To know it's a cycle of life,
That we're all imperfect.
You ride the waves of grief with mindfulness and self-compassion over and over,
Breath by breath.
There is no way to know when grief will end,
But with caring presence,
It will.
It's also important to remember that what is moving through the mind is part of a vast,
Complex,
Physical and mental process which has many sources.
As you may know,
Grief has its own way of unfolding.
No one can plan it or get rid of it.
Sooner or later,
It can feel appropriate to want to let go,
To release those heavy feelings.
Sometimes the grief might be so heavy that we have to set it down for a while,
Take a walk outside,
Eat some healthy food,
Talk with a friend,
Watch something funny,
Play with an animal,
Something,
Anything positive that doesn't remind you of your sadness.
Being a friend to yourself will give you the energy you need to come back to process your grief.
After that,
It can become possible to bring awareness to some of the positive aspects of life which can empower you to see more of your mental experience more clearly and also to feel your bodily sensations more viscerally.
All the while,
If it's meaningful,
There can be an underlying sense of the unknown,
The uncertain,
The mystery of life in which we find ourselves in the middle of,
With a sense of wonder and gratitude.
It's so important in ways large and small to be loving to your own heart and to reflect on and receive the caring support of other people.
So with all of this in mind,
Let's do a guided mindfulness exercise.
Always begin by finding a posture that feels relaxed and alert.
And now see if you can observe your mind and your body from a small distance,
Allowing the sensations to be however they are.
Try not to be negative about anything that doesn't feel good.
And after a while,
Shift into gently releasing and letting go of the negative.
And then really open up your heart and encourage the positive.
And remember that you can bring attention to feeling the positive even when sadness or other feelings are also present.
Opening to wonder,
Opening to gratitude for the mysterious ways that life unfolds as we allow our grief to unfold alongside our kind awareness.
Wonderful.
So to recap,
For times of grief,
It can be helpful to allow what's there to be there.
Try to limit what is painful or harmful.
Try to do what is more enjoyable and beneficial.
And to open yourself up to wonder and gratitude.
Thank you for your courage.
Thank you for your strength.
And thank yourself for showing up.
Just to be with your grief,
With caring awareness,
That is mindfulness.
Trust and surrender to what is.
Give yourself a hug,
Reminding yourself that unconditional love exists in every moment.
Thank you.
