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

Karla Helbert


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

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