Relaxation + Mindfulness for Grief

One Minute Meditation (1 minute)

If you’ve been eager to meditate but struggle to find the time, consider beginning with a 1-minute meditation designed to help you carve out a moment for even the briefest of pauses.

Two Minute Meditation (2 minutes)

Embrace this 2-minute grounding meditation, a brief moment where you can leave behind the chaos, and step into a space of pause. It’s not about time; it’s about the intention to reconnect with yourself. Take these two minutes as a gift to your well-being, and you’ll discover how even the smallest pause can bring a moment of peace.

Basic Grounding Exercise (3 minutes)

Listening to a basic grounding exercise can be a transformative experience. It’s an opportunity to anchor yourself in the present moment, shed stress, and reconnect with your inner calm. When life feels chaotic or overwhelming, taking a few moments to ground yourself can provide a profound sense of stability and peace.

Mindful Breathing Short (6 minutes)

The primary goal of mindful breathing is simply a calm, non-judging awareness, allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go without getting caught up in them. This is a short guide and therefore well suited to beginners.

Compassionate Hand Exercise (5 minutes)

The compassionate hand exercise is a mindfulness and self-compassion technique used to promote relaxation and self-care. It involves imagining the soothing touch of a compassionate figure or symbolically using your own hand to convey comfort and kindness to yourself.

Deep Belly Breathing – Short (4 minutes)

Amidst the heavy emotions of grief, deep belly breathing can serve as a lifeline to inner calm and solace. This practice encourages you to connect with your breath and anchor yourself in the present moment. Embrace it as a gentle but powerful tool to help you find moments of peace, restore your emotional balance, and navigate the journey of grief with greater resilience.

Meditation Body Scan (9 minutes)

This meditation starts by introducing calm breathing and then moves on to a body scan. Body scan meditations invite you to move your focus of attention around the body, being curious about your experience and observing any sensations that you become aware of.

Meditation Body Scan (9 minutes)

This meditation starts by introducing calm breathing and then moves on to a body scan. Body scan meditations invite you to move your focus of attention around the body, being curious about your experience and observing any sensations that you become aware of.

Calming Place Exercise (9 minutes)

During times of grief, finding solace in a calming place exercise can be especially healing. It offers a gentle escape from the intensity of emotions and provides a safe space to breathe and reflect. Give yourself this short moment as a way of accessing a moment of calm for you.

Counting Meditation (9 minutes)

This meditation uses the breath as an object of concentration. By focusing on the breath you become aware of the mind’s tendency to jump from one thing to another. This meditation uses our breath as an anchor to our concentration to help bring us back to the present moment. It is a way to develop mindfulness. The mindfulness of breathing is a good antidote to restlessness and anxiety, and a good way to relax: concentration on the breath has a positive effect on your entire physical and mental state.

Lower Belly Meditation (9 minutes)

This is a unique type of meditation. It encourages us to lower our sense of consciousness away from our minds and hearts, and down into our bellies, which is the centre of our being. This meditation requires practice, and can be very effective for restless hearts and minds.

Deep Breathing Exercise (9 minutes)

During the challenging process of grief, a deep breathing exercise can be a grounding and comforting practice. It’s a way to reconnect with your body and ease the emotional turbulence that accompanies loss. This is similar to our Deep Belly Breathing exercise but is longer in duration.

Guided Imagery – The Beach (9 minutes)

A mindfulness exercise which uses the imagery of being on a beach to help focus your attention and calm the mind.

Forgiveness Meditation (10 minutes)

Engaging in a forgiveness meditation during grief can be a powerful step towards healing and emotional release. It allows you to work towards gently exploring and letting go of any unresolved feelings or conflicts, both towards others and yourself. By embarking on this journey, you offer yourself the opportunity to lighten the burden of grief and find a path towards greater inner peace and acceptance.

Safe Place Imagery (10 minutes)

There is a lot evidence to suggest that engaging in therapeutic imagery exercises can have positive effects on emotional wellbeing. This exercise will walk you through an imagery exercise that helps you create and explore a safe place for you – somewhere you can return to at any point in time.

Mindfulness Bodyscan (13 minutes)

A mindfulness audio exercise that helps you nourish your body and mind with some space to be as you are. This is very similar to the Body Scan Meditation at the top of the page, but is a slightly longer version of the exercise.

Soften Soothe Allow Meditation (13 minutes)

The ‘Soften, Soothe, Allow‘ meditation is a mindfulness practice used for cultivating self-compassion and emotional regulation. By combining three elements — softening tension, soothing with kindness, and allowing without judgment — the Soften, Soothe, Allow meditation aims to support you in developing self-compassion, emotional resilience, and a greater sense of inner peace.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (20 minutes)

Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that involves tensing specific muscle groups and then relaxing them to create awareness of tension and relaxation. It is termed progressive because it proceeds through all major muscle groups, relaxing them one at a time, and eventually leads to total muscle relaxation. This exercise can help relax you and is therefore a great exercise to do before going to bed.

NOTE: If you have any injuries or pains in your body it is recommended that you do not tense those parts of the body when they are introduced in the guide.