Yoga for Grief: Acceptance | Presence, Awareness, and Continuation
“The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life. In living life happily, as it should be lived. Living in the moment.”
— Sting
A Recap From Yoga for Grief: Acceptance
The last thing you’re likely thinking about during your grief process is anything to do with joy or happiness. Depending on where you are in your journey or whether you’ve gone through any of the other grief yoga videos, you may be more willing to move forward toward that sense of healing. You also may not, which is equally okay, but it’s what we’ll look at today anyway.
Yin yoga can be just as challenging, if not more, than a vinyasa practice. In vinyasa, as in life, we’re so used to moving from breath to breath, posture to posture, thing to thing. We aren’t used to slowing down and just being present. We dabbled in that a little bit with our depression practice, but we’re in full force with our yin today.
Our bodies store a lot more emotions than we think or give them credit for, particularly in our hips. Many people feel emotional after a deep yin practice because they find they’ve awakened emotions they otherwise considered dormant, and can sometimes be caught off guard by that.
Awaken all the good, bad, and ugly within you.
This is grieving. It isn’t supposed to be pretty. Other people around you aren’t supposed to understand. It isn’t meant for them to understand. It’s meant for you to explore on your own. I’ve said it before, but I will say it again: the more you spend time in denial of your feelings, the more angry you’re likely to get, and that won’t help anything, either. You can wonder why this is happening as much as you want, but ultimately, that won’t change a thing.
Fortunately, you’ve shown up for yourself. Maybe it was just for this practice, or maybe you’ve done all of the others in the grief series as well. Be proud of anything you’ve done to explore and connect deeper with your body, your mind, and your emotions, and remember that this journey is not linear and will take constant work.
For further breathwork off the mat, consider the Three-Part breath
The Three-Part Breath, also known as Dirgha Pranayama or the “Royal Breath,” is a very simple, easy, basic, and effective form of breathwork. It’s very frequently used as the first form of breathwork for new practitioners, and it’s one of the easiest to practice.
Sit or lie comfortably, then exhale all your breath. The three parts include your abdomen, your diaphragm, and your chest. You can either slowly inhale and feel all of these parts fill up one at a time, or take a small inhale and breathe into your abdomen, pause, then inhale into your diaphragm, pause, and then finish your inhale at the top of your chest. This breaks the breath into three parts, and even though there are pauses in each section, it is still all done within the same inhale. The same goes for the exhale: either nice and smooth as you deflate, or break it up into the three parts to let it all go.
If you’re seeking a journal entry, reflect on how your grief has changed you
Wherever you are on your grief journey, you’re not the same person you were before it. It doesn’t matter if the changes you feel are life-altering or minuscule — you’re still different. Take some time to reflect on that. What were you like before this happened to you? What about it has changed for you, and how will you incorporate it into your life?
I know this isn’t easy.
If you’ve made it here—whether this is your first practice or your fifth—you’ve already done something important. You showed up.
Grief doesn’t end here. It doesn’t resolve neatly or disappear just because you’ve moved through each stage once. It shifts. It returns. It evolves.
So will you.
Acceptance isn’t about being “okay” with everything that’s happened. It’s about learning how to live alongside it. To breathe through it. To keep moving forward, even when it still feels heavy.
Some days will feel lighter. Some won’t. Both are part of the process.
Come back to this practice whenever you need to. Come back to your breath. Come back to your body.
And most importantly, keep showing up for yourself in whatever way you can.
That’s where the work is.
That’s where the healing begins.
