Mindfulness & Grief

From Self-Care to Posttraumatic Growth ​

With Heather Stang

Meditation for grief can help you cope with the pain and overwhelming emotions of loss, provide much needed self-care, as well as find new footing in your very changed world. It may even lead to posttraumatic growth. Author Heather Stang discusses the second edition of her book, Mindfulness & Grief, with guest host Karla Helbert.

The act of being mindful in your grieving process is about finding the places where you can create more space to allievate some suffering and to find the places where you can become the person that you want to be now that this has happened.

- Heather Stang

In this episode the tables were turned—Karla Helbert, author of Yoga for Grief & Loss, interviewed me on my own podcast! This gave me an opportunity to share some "behind the scenes" tidbits  from the second edition of Mindfulness & Grief, and explain how I developed the eight week program in the first place. Both Karla and I find the concept of Posttraumatic Growth interesting and powerful.  While neither of us see grief as a gift— in fact when I hear that I cringe in pain—but we agree that grief changes you.  The mindful approach to grief includes both acknowledging what you can not change, and taking charge where you can. This may included applying self-care techniques to your grieving body, mind, and spirit. Not being so hard on yourself by decreasing negative self-talk. Saying no to others when you just don't feel up to socializing. Getting that massage, doing yoga, and finding meditation and relaxation tools that help you get back to sleep. Spending times doing things that sooth your soul, or help you remember and honor your special person. Once you begin to take care of yourself,  you may start to find that you are benefiting from this self care and introspection. THIS IS NOT TO SAY YOU ARE BENEFITING FROM GRIEF! Right? You would rather have your special person. You are benefiting from how you are treating yourself, and now seeing the world. In fact, there are five domains of posttruamtic growth (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006):

• Increased Appreciation of Personal Strength
• Sense of New Opportunities & Possibilities
• Deepened Sense of Connection & Compassion
• Appreciation of Life in General
• Spiritual or Religious Change

Please consider adding the second edition of Mindfulness & Grief to your collection, and leave a review on Amazon if you already have a copy. I tried to write the book I wanted to read, and I feel the updates in the new edition are helpful. Thank you for listening!