The Artists’
Grief Deck

Healthy thinking leads to healthy emotions. By listening to how you talk to yourself, you can determine whether your internal statements lead to anxiety and defeat (“I can’t do this") or encourage...

If you have clay or playdough allow your hands to squish, mold, or shape it. Using a toothpick or pencil, write your loved one’s name in the clay/dough. Spend a minute remembering a way they worked...

I comfort myself by… I find hope in… My friends give me…...

I feel worried about… I feel happy when… I have regrets about… I feel guilty for… I feel safest when… I am encouraged by…...

In winter, breathe in the cold, and let the rain shower and cleanse your soul. In summer, bathe in the warmth, and let the light pool and cleanse your soul. That is nature: to be alone, but no...

Time is one thing we can never, ever get back. Having a chronic illness caused me to lose the experience of having a normal life by any stretch of the imagination from 2012-2016 and our current pandem...

Go in front of the whitest wall in your house. Put your right cheek on the wall, it's like hearing the voice of the wall. Close your both eyes and think about baby hands- with all the details- chubby...

Find something that you think your loved one would have loved and love it for them. It doesn’t have to be anything special or perfect. Maybe it is a simple object in your home, outside in nature, or...

You can’t bring back the dead, but you can learn their wisdom, passed down from generation to generation. What did you learn from your loved one? What were the gifts that you received? How might you...

Material objects often carry emotional and memorial value. What is an object that helps you remember your loved one? How would you describe this object? Is it soft? Hard? What other meanings does that...

Explaining how you feel to someone who has never experienced grief is a difficult process. Sometimes the English language does not have the words we need. Photograph yourself depicting what your feeli...

Think about the feelings inside you that bubble up. Try to give them each their own name. How many feelings can you name? Once you name them, can you let them go?...

Deep down, our human animal knows how to grieve. Trust yourself. Grief is a personal process, and your grief is as unique as you are. No one has the right to tell you how to walk your grief journey....

Losing someone or something important to us brings home the fact there is much in life we cannot control. Control is something we thought we had, but ultimately there are many things in life we cannot...

Our world has been in disarray from COVID-19 since March. If you’re like me and have a paper calendar, the following months look strange, empty, and not even representative of our own lives. Spend t...

When I am in my car alone, sometimes I’ll talk and explain life events that have happened to me like I’m being interviewed on a news channel or a talk show. I think about speaking it to the masses...

Touch another person's hand and wait until the temperature becomes consistent. There is one more thing in common between you. If you are by yourself, put your hand on a surface or an object and wait u...

Distraction from grief is a healthy coping strategy. It is not necessary to experience grief intensely 100% of the time to move through your journey in a health manner. “Taking a break” from the g...

My dad passed away a year before Covid hit and what made that time of isolation even harder was that I was also going through a really tough time dealing with his passing. As I was trying to get motiv...