Where Does Your Grief Live in the Body?
Have you noticed how your body feels after experiencing a loss?
When we’ve experienced loss and are grieving, we tend to focus on our emotions, like sadness, anger, depression, and guilt. The emotions we feel as we grieve the loss of a person, a pet, a job, a home, or sense of normalcy after traumatic experience, can be all over the place, much like a roller coaster. And this is normal. But along with these emotional ups and downs, there are physical effects of grief that can live in our body
I remember in the early days of my grief after the loss of my son, I felt like I had cloud in my chest. I had a hard time breathing and felt exhausted. A friend who’d experienced loss described pain in her joints, especially in her hips. Other areas where you may feel the effects of grief include heart problems, intestinal issues and aches and pains just to name a few.
Sometimes it’s hard to notice where your grief lives in your body. Maybe you’ve never thought about it before or maybe you didn’t connect the dots between your grief and your physical pain. Becoming aware of where this pain lives is the first step to releasing it from the body.
So, how can you discover where grief lives in your body? Here’s a technique to try:
Seated yoga technique to explore where grief lives in your body
Sit in a chair or on a yoga mat on the floor. Find a tall spine and let your hands rest on your knees or in your lap.
Close your eyes if that feels comfortable or let your gaze rest towards the floor. Inhale through your nose and exhale out the mouth a couple of times. Feel your body settle in.
Begin to notice where you feel discomfort, achy, stuck, or actual pain in your physical body. Some people notice hips, shoulders, neck or at the heart center.
Bring one hand to the area that feels tight, stressful or painful
Begin to massage that place with one or both hands.
Close your eyes and breathe into this area for as long as you are comfortable – inhale thru the nose and exhale thru the nose.
Release your hands to your lap.
Now that you are aware of where the grief pain lives in your body, you can begin the job of releasing this stuck energy.
Want more resources to help you navigate grief and loss? Download the Free Tips for Grief Relief Guide