Heal Slowly: A Gentle Path to Healing After Loss
Welcome to Phase 3 of your healing journey: Integration & Growth. Over the next 8 weeks, we'll honor your grief while cultivating resilience through mindfulness practices, expressive writing, and community connection.
Each 90-minute session creates a sacred space where you can breathe deeply, reflect on your progress, and take meaningful steps toward integrating your loss into your evolving story. You'll learn practical tools for managing difficult emotions while discovering new sources of joy and meaning.
Phase 3: Grow – Heal Slowly
In this 8-week phase, we'll nurture self-compassion as you integrate your loss experience. Through mindfulness practices and expressive activities, you'll learn to honor your grief while discovering new meaning.
Self-Compassion
Learn practical techniques to quiet your inner critic and embrace gentleness during difficult moments
Gentle Progress
Explore how small, consistent steps create meaningful change without overwhelming your healing process
Healing Light
Discover mindfulness exercises that help you find brief moments of peace even on your hardest days
Session 1: Be Kind to You
Video Content
"Talk to yourself like someone you love." This 15-minute guided meditation teaches how to replace self-criticism with gentle words of encouragement that honor your grief journey.
Kind Voice Exercise
Write a 5-minute letter to yourself using compassionate language. Example: "I acknowledge your pain. You're carrying a heavy burden, and I'm proud of how you're moving through each day."
Daily Reflection
Each morning ask: "What specific kind thing can I tell myself today?" Perhaps "It's okay that I felt overwhelmed yesterday" or "I deserve patience as I navigate this difficult time."
Session 2: Shift the Hurt
Audio Guidance (25 min)
Listen to "Cognitive Reframing: Turning Pain into Perspective" as Dr. Maya guides you through identifying thought patterns that intensify grief, including all-or-nothing thinking and catastrophizing.
Thought Flip Exercise (40 min)
Select a recurring painful thought (e.g., "I'll never feel joy again" or "I should have done more"). Write it down, acknowledge its presence, then gently reframe it with self-compassion: "It's natural to feel this way AND moments of peace are still possible."
Daily Integration (10 min)
Each morning, set an intention to notice one thought that needs gentler framing. Use your journal to track these moments, noting how reframing shifts your physical and emotional experience of grief.
Remember: You're not erasing or denying your pain. You're learning to transform how you carry it, creating space for both grief and healing to coexist.
Session 3: Moments of Peace
Our 18-minute mini-documentary "Finding Peace in Grief" showcases how women discovered moments of tranquility through creative expression, music therapy, nature immersion, and mindfulness practices during their own grief journeys.
For your "Peace Pockets" exercise (30 min), identify three activities that bring you moments of calm during difficult emotions. Write these in your journal with specific details on how to incorporate them into your daily routine, especially when grief feels overwhelming.
Remember: These peaceful moments aren't escapes from grief but gentle spaces where both your loss and your healing can coexist.
Session 4: Carry It Lighter
Guided Meditation (30 min)
Experience "Releasing Emotional Weight Without Guilt" with Dr. Maya's gentle voice guiding you through visualizing your grief as a physical weight you can set down temporarily
The Drop Exercise (20 min)
Write one heavy thought or feeling you're ready to lay down on a biodegradable paper. Place it in water or soil as a symbolic release of what no longer serves your healing
Daily Permission Practice (15 min)
Each morning, speak aloud: "I give myself permission to feel lighter today. My love for [name] remains even as I release the heaviest parts of my grief"
You don't have to hold the full weight of your loss every moment. Releasing isn't betrayal or forgetting—it's creating necessary space for healing while honoring your ongoing connection to your loved one.
Your Journey Continues
Phase 1: Acknowledge
You've honored your feelings, given space to your grief, and recognized that your pain is valid and deserves attention.
Phase 2: Process
You've worked through difficult emotions with courage, identified thought patterns, and begun reframing painful thoughts with self-compassion.
Phase 3: Grow
You're practicing daily self-kindness, finding your "Peace Pockets," and learning to carry your grief more gently without guilt.
Phase 4: Thrive
In our next program, we'll explore rebuilding your life with new meaning while honoring your loss and the love that remains.
Remember, healing isn't linear—some days will be harder than others. Trust your pace and celebrate each small step forward on this gentle path to healing.