Stepping Safely into the Chaos of Grief: Embodiment Tools for Meeting Loss and Difficulty

We live in a time, when sadly, many people experience loss and grief.

Can yoga offer help during these times of big transitions we are facing in life these days? Indeed, yoga can be a lifesaver during any challenging life transition, but particularly during grief and loss.

Grief takes the wind out of our sails like nothing else. When her son passed away in July 2020, yoga therapist Donna Brooks knew that she was at a fork in the road. She could either collapse into bitterness and unending suffering and lose herself completely in grief.

OR she could look for richness in the shadows.

Guess which she chose?....“

It was my daily yoga and embodiment practices that gave me the resilience to cope during this time,” says Donna about this incredibly challenging situation. “ It helped me stay steady in the stillness that pervades all emotion.”

In this 3-part online course, Donna will share what she learned during this process of honoring and processing the overpowering grief she felt at the loss of her son.

Human beings go numb when pain, injury and emotional distress occur. This is especially true when we experience the shock of loss. That is okay at first. But if it lasts too long we disconnect from the only place we actually experience life - these bodies, says Donna.

The more we turn away from our body, the more difficulty we have in coming to terms with the reality of what life is.

Loss, grief, and sadness can be experienced more fluidly when we use embodiment skills that respect and honor our natural neurobiology, support safety in our nervous systems and support an expanded presence of our cellular consciousness.

Being with this subtle, and even blissful embodiment allows emotions related to loss to come like waves, rising and falling.

We experience grief as movement while we remain anchored in the thing that is certain: In this moment we have this experienced, living body.

In this course, Donna will share how the resilience gained over a 40-year somatically based body practice has provided a basis through which to accept, integrate and deeply experience loss and difficult transitions in life.

Here is a list of what will be covered in our course:

• The role of the fight-flight-or-freeze response in grief
• Keeping your nervous system alive so it regulates in the face of grief
• Knowing when to meditate, when to be aerobic, when to be nourishing
• Allowing grief and gratitude to coexist 
• Techniques for grounding during periods of grief
• The role of voice and chanting

“The level of intensity of what you are going through can force you to put your own health and well being on the back burner,” says Donna. “But a little focus can go a long way. We can work together to give you ground and gently allow you to feel safe and whole again.”​​