The Artists’
Grief Deck

Healing is natural in a healthy grief process. Being able to enjoy time alone, laughing at a joke or funny movie, planning pleasant activities for the future, having a renewed sense of energy and purp...

Connect with an ancestor, either by genealogy or culture or choice. It may help to imagine or conjure their image, or perhaps you may just feel their warmth or light. What might you thank them for? Wh...

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...

Meditation: "In the future the dead is all of us - jumped out of the earth to dance again. Every step a reminder of rhythm. Woven into our clothes gleam - dragonfly winged - I remember the good ghosts...

Recall the people you love who you have lost in your life who have added deeply to who you are. Then write a “blessing equation.” For example: “John + Shannon + Leslie + Chondra = ME” Take som...

It can be very overwhelming, watching and living. Think of the absoluteness of your fingers the sturdiness of arbors. To look past the emptiness right in front of your eyes. To stare at something beau...

Some waves are huge! Others, barely a ripple. [breathe] Close your eyes. Where in your body do you feel it? Watch a sensation with gentle curiosity. [breathe] Let it build... peak… subside… … Re...

When I lost my mom it was devastating and it was a hard thing to take in. Something that helped me cope was to talk to a picture of her and hold her ashes. This made me feel close to her and that she...

We can calm ourselves through our breath. Use the pattern on the front of this card to guide you. Repeat 3 times or more. Notice how you feel....

If I could say one thing to the person who died, I would… The hardest thing about life without this person is…....

Sometimes large waves of grief overcome me during the oddest parts of the day, while I’m at work or walking to the subway. I don’t always have an outlet in those moments. Life doesn’t always mak...

Take a Cue From Poetry What is your favorite poem? Put it in your own words. In the original poem below, I substitute the word hope for grief from the first line of Emily Dickinson’s poem “‘Hope...

Losing people can leave us with unresolved feelings. Write a letter to your lost one(s). This can be someone you knew, or someone you never met (such as an ancestor)Tell them what you wish you could t...

Worries seem to swirl around us sometimes. Some clang loudly, some whisper. Take a few deep breaths and call up one of your worries or concerns. Hold it for a moment in your imagination, then let it l...

We don’t always allow other people to see or know the way we are feeling on the inside. When we mask our feelings, sometimes the feelings get bigger or come out in ways that we can’t control or do...

When I am going through a difficult phase I tend to bottle everything up. I used to think it was normal to do this and that it was a more efficient way of dealing with my feelings. Through doing this...

Find an old picture of a memory with a person that has died. Use any materials you have (pencil, paints, clay, etc) to recreate this moment with this person. Revisit this memory by sitting still and l...

We’re taught at a young age in school that form is in flux. Water can change its physical state from solid to liquid to gas a million times and never lose any part of itself. We forget this fact in...

Upul said, "Betty be a tunnel" Betty be a tunnel the dread the love the breath the loss You are a tunnel let life go through...