Somatic Grief Release

This somatic practice is a space to tend to whatever grief you’re carrying instead of pushing it down. In tiny doses, we allow ourselves to feel what’s here and gently let some of it move and somatically express itself. So we can alchemize grief into more capacity to hold more beauty in life. You may not be able to change what happened, but you can change how you relate to it.

A practice for signaling safety to your nervous system and letting grief move, so you don’t have to keep carrying it alone.

|| Music: Epidemicsound = Taiga - Ever So Blue, Silent Scream - Hushed, Sycamore - Jakob Ahlbom, Progress - Ever So Blue

Transcript

Hi, I'm Miriam Omavi and I'm so glad you're here for this somatic grief release practice. I'm gonna give you a quick little intro for what we're gonna do today and for the time I'm talking you can just go and see if you can find a little pillow and you can do this practice from your couch, From wherever you feel comfortable. You don't need to sit like this on the floor. Nobody has really taught us what to do with grief since this emotion has very little space in our society. We're expected to move on so quickly and grief is only ever really acceptable when something significant happened to us. So we often stuff our grief down and don't show it and don't even show it to ourselves because sometimes it feels just too overwhelming. But grief can be about so many things like grieving the life we hoped we would live by now but don't. Grief about ending relationships. Grief about a new season of life, Starting something new but for this having to leave something else behind. Or simply the grief of becoming, Of growing. So it's so important to tend to this grief. Because if we don't, All the beautiful things in life will become flat and lifeless to us. Because in order to feel the beautiful things and feel deeply and fully, We also need to connect to our grief. Because grief is what gives our life depth. It's where we alchemize grief into joy, Into capacity to hold more. To hold more grief, Also hold more joy and love and all the good things in life. So this practice is exactly for this. It is for all types of grief and we're going to tend to it and mobilize it and express it because grief often kind of makes us want to curl up and kind of numb and be alone, Which can be important at times. But if we're in this too long, Grief can make us feel really powerless. So in this practice, We're going to take our agency back, Showing our nervous that we're doing something about it. And even when we're not really changing the situation itself, We're tending to our grief differently and therefore exercising our agency. So if you got your pillow, We can start. You can find a comfortable seat, Maybe even lean back a little bit and just arrive here. Feel the surface beneath you. Maybe you want to sigh and just arrive here and let yourself be here with all that you are, With all your grief, With all your joy, With all your anxieties, Whatever is here. If you like, You can just gently do this havening motion. Rub up and down your arms. And feel into the sensations that you're generating here with your hands. And be really present with these sensations, Feeling the surface beneath you, Holding you, Cradling you. Hmm. . . And just really arriving in your inner world. And then you can take your pillow if you have one. Otherwise, You can just give yourself a hug. And hug this pillow. Notice what happens when you hug this pillow. Maybe you want to just sway from side to side, Whatever feels good here. Notice this pillow pressed against you, Notice this hug. And just let yourself fall into this hug. Into this pillow, Let this pillow support you. And send your attention into your inner world. That that grief that sometimes visits you, Or maybe often visits you, Bubble up. Maybe name that grief. Maybe drop this question into your depth. What wants to be known in your grief. Let yourself be moved by the answer, By the stillness. And if you haven't connected to that grief yet, That is totally fine. It's okay. Stay with this practice. Just hold yourself in whatever you feel here. And now you can open your eyes if you've closed them and we're going to move into the grief release practice and for this have a couple of options. You can imagine kind of flicking paint against the wall or even having little fireworks that you're flicking away from you. You can also this motion of pulling out weeds out of the ground like all the things that annoy you or that make you really sad or the things that you are angry about or the things that are unfair and all that grief and everything it does to you, Pulling it out. Or ripping paper, You can even use real paper if you have like old newspapers and rip them apart. Or you can also just push everything that weighs on you away from you, Or even push literally into a wall. And you can change these as we go, But I invite you to just start with flicking a little paint. Hmm. . . Flicking all that weighs you down a way. Thinking about all the things that are sad, That are. . . Making you angry, That are unfair. Just flicking them away and as you do this maybe these movements become bigger. Or maybe you want to move into pulling out weeds from the ground, Pulling everything out that is there that you don't want, That is so unfair, That just weighs you down. And just letting your whole body do this movement. You can even get up and do this full body. Ripping the paper or just pushing everything away, Making noises, Maybe even saying curse words and letting it out. And seeing if there's breath that wants to come through. There are noises that want to come through. Just letting your whole body. . . Be what it wants to be. Throwing it away, Pulling it out, Ripping it apart, Pushing it away. Just maybe even pushing into a wall. And just letting yourself feel. If there's tears that want to come, Let them come. If there are noises that want to get out, Just get them out. If there are movements your body wants to make, Do these movements. You can even take this pillow and throw it to the ground and just let it all go. And see how big or small these movements want to be. And. . . Just maybe take a little second and kind of ride the release and let these movements become a little smaller and notice Whether there is more that wants to come out or if you feel kind of satisfied and if there is more, You can continue doing this practice, Maybe pausing the video. And if not, You can come back maybe to a seated position and taking your pillow. Hugging this pillow once again. And rocking from side to side. Feeling into your body, How that was for you. I came up. And exploring what it feels like to hold yourself here. Perhaps noticing within your body. What it felt like to let that all out. Allowing yourself to feel whatever you feel. You wanna cry? If you want to just be still, Be still. If you feel like there is so much more that's coming up. See if you want to go into that now or if you want to go into that later. If you feel like you need more support from someone else or from a therapist. Please honor that need. And if you like you can take a couple of deep breaths here and Slowly maybe feeling the texture of the pillow. You'd be opening your eyes if you had closed them. Coming back into the room. Bedding mirror. Eyes move around the room, Recognizing where you are. And arriving back here. If you like, You can come back to this practice as often as you need. Kind of let all this grief that sometimes accumulates out. If you'd like to go deeper into somatics and nervous system work, Please check out my profile. I have so many other courses and meditations on this topic. And I hope you can hold yourself today. See you next time. I'm Miriam Amavi. Bye.

Reviews

Thanks Miriam. Another helpful practice. I'll trybit standing next time to allow more movement.
🙏