available as kindle or paperback
Mindfulness & Grief gives you the tools and inspiration you need to honor your love and your loss so you can start feeling like yourself again.
Time does not heal our wounds. It is what we do with our time that matters. But in the wake of devastating loss, how and where do you begin? Mindfulness & Grief is your light in the darkness. This self-care guide is filled with inspirational stories and practices you can start doing today to help you feel like yourself again, even if you feel lost in a foggy haze.
- Ease your physical symptoms of grief
- Calm your mind and help you regulate difficult emotions
- Increase compassion toward yourself and others
- Help you make meaning from your loss & honor your loved one
- Develop your new self-narrative for moving forward
- Cultivate resilience to stress through grief and beyond
Mindfulness & Grief unites ancient meditation practices with modern grief research in a useful and compassionate way. You will get direction you need, as well as the permission you deserve, so you can grieve in an authentic way. From self-care in the early days, to discovering meaning and continued bonds with your loved one, Mindfulness & Grief will guide you every step of the way.
Listen to Heather Stang talk about the book in episode 7 of the Mindfulness & Grief Pocast: Mindfulness & Grief: From Self-Care to Posttraumatic Growth.
“Heather Stang offers those who are grieving a wise and practical guide.... this book will help you find your own inner strength and awakening heart in the midst of great loss.”
TARA BRACH, Ph.D.
Author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge
available as kindle or paperback
A wise and compassionate guide to life after loss. Mindfulness & Grief is a treasured companion on the path.
Mindfulness & Grief features over 35 meditation, yoga, journaling and expressive arts exercises. Mindfulness & Grief is based on the 8-week program developed by thanatologist and meditation teacher Heather Stang. The teachings are accessible to anyone - regardless of physical ability - and does not require any previous meditation or yoga experience.
What The Experts Say About Mindfulness & Grief
“
When we are more firmly grounded in our bodies, as Heather Stang demonstrates, we are better able literally and metaphorically to find a new footing in the world, and to restore a life of meaning and coherence.
Dr. Robert Neimeyer - Director, Portland Institute for Loss & Transition & Editor, New Techniques of Grief Therapy
“
Heather Stang's Mindfulness & Grief is a must read and must have for those in grief and those who work with the bereaved and the traumatized. Mindfulness practices can help us hold what we think we cannot hold and bear what we believe we cannot bear.
Karla Helbert, LPC, C-IAYT, E-RYT - Author, Finding Your Own Way to Grieve, Yoga for Grief and Loss, The Chakra System in Grief and Trauma
“
Not only does Heather Stang offer hope – she offers ways to be with grief that are effective and that transform it at the same time. Embracing the moment and being present to what is happening rather than despairing in it are just one small but powerful aspect. I highly recommend this book.
Michael Lee, M.A. - Founder, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy
available as kindle or paperback
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 |