“I am grateful to know how exquisitely I have been made to feel and heal. Thank you for showing me that grief will not kill me, that my sorrows are not toxic - that only an obstinate will to hoard them secretly presents a problem. Teach me to grieve my losses in the moment, until I am complete. It is okay if it takes a lifetime to sense that my house is in order. Help me to have the courage to claim a different shape for my life than history foretold.

Refresh my spirit with the waters of nature. Give me language to communicate my experience with others who are on a path of mending.”

— Pixie Lighthouse, Chactaw, Creek and Chickasaw Elder - From her book “Prayers of Honouring Grief”

HONOURING GRIEF & HELAING

Walking with grief is an experience that every human has at some point in their life. Grief is a natural part of the human experience. When we have teachings around grief, we have an

easier time moving through it. Breath has been a teaching in every culture for grief. When we have a moment of traumatic impact in our lives we often say ‘I can’t breathe’ or ‘it felt like all the air left my body’. When life shifts so intensely, it takes our breath away. And so, the answer then, is to begin breathing again. To walk through grief, we must take it one day at a time, one moment at a time, one breath at a time.

It is a sacred time when we are moving through grief and trauma. When we have practices and teachings around us that help us to honour the process, move the dense energy and glean the lessons, we make it through to the other side.

One of those practices is breathwork. By using the breath we create a cocoon for ourselves to move through our suffering and find healing, much like the traditional Inipi or sweat lodge ceremony. The grandfather stones create a purifying heat within the lodge, just as our breath does for the suffering of the mind and body to burn up in. Breathwork can become a ceremony so that when we are grieving, we can seat ourselves in the fire and water of our breath and let the medicine run through us.

When we walk through grief, we must let our tears run like rivers until we are done. Breathwork helps us to access our emotional truth and centres us in the heart of our experience. Sitting down to breathe with the intention to feel can help us heal. It is one pathway that helps us somatically process our grief so that it does not stay stuck in our body and our mind is not frozen in time. Once our emotions are integrated, the mind calms and we land in acceptance of the change that has taken place in our life. Our breathwork reminds us of this pertinent spiritual truth about life, that everything is impermanent and we must eventually let go.

If you need to be wrapped up in warmth while you walk through grief, put on this playlist and just breathe.

Walking beside you Yogis,

Malina