Releasing Grief FromYour Body

We explore how grief lives in the body and why the nervous system is the doorway to healing, rest, and safety. Simple tools like touch, movement, breath, sound, connection, and tears help shift from overwhelm to regulation.

• grief as a physiological experience held in the body
• nervous system as protector and pathway to healing
• soothing touch, hugs, and the butterfly hug
• movement and shaking to complete stress cycles
• grounding in nature, water, and the healing power of tears
• breath practices including box breathing and hand-on-heart
• sound therapy through music, harp, nature such as rain, and frequencies
• building safety and connection to allow rest and recovery
• listening to body signals with compassion and consistency
• resources, guides, and support for deeper practice

Please share this episode with someone you know who's grieving. Join me in this movement to change how the world views and handles grief and those grieving. 

If you want to go deeper with a guided journal, reach out to me. Thecaringdeathdoula@gmail.com

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Chapters

• 1:22 Framing Grief In The Body
• 2:20 Your Nervous System Holds Healing
• 3:03 Touch, Hugs, And Movement
• 3:54 Grounding, Water, And Tears
• 5:05 Breathing And Self-Soothing Tools
• 5:41 Sound, Music, And Healing Frequencies
• 6:19 Safety, Connection, And Regulation
• 7:29 Listening To Your Body With Compassion
• 8:19 Guides, Resources, And How To Connect
• 9:01 Share The Movement For Better Grief Care

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:41

Hello and welcome back to the Caring Death Doula Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. Now, if you listened last week to episodes 23 and 24, and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them because we covered how grief is not just emotional, how it gets held in our body. And so we went through what that looks like. It's very important for us to learn to listen to our bodies, to know how we're handling our loss and our grief that we we have, because life has changed, right? I mean, we we're always going through some kind of change, and there's always a grief, even if it's a happy change, uh we we grieve. And uh definitely in loss we grieve. So in last week's episodes, like I mentioned, we talked about the ways that our nervous system, that our body, holds grief. And so today I would like to talk about how our nervous system also holds healing for us. Because it's very important that we learn to listen to our bodies and learn to help our bodies heal, to understand that we're not broken, that there's nothing wrong with us, that what we're going through is normal, is is a normal to grief, and to not, you know, freak out or get scared or get worried, or even listen to anybody out there that might be telling you that you are broken and you need help and you need fixed. So the nervous system holds healing in what ways? Well, you know how when sometimes you get a hug and it just feels so good. So touch, soothing touch can be very important, important. When you are with your loved one at the end of his journey, or even just anyone who's sick, we all know how comforting that is to just have a light, soothing touch. And so touching, hugging, and movement, moving your body, you know, bouncing your heels up and down while you're sitting, or just getting up and just shaking. Just shaking can be so much of a way to heal, a way to release the stress and the grief that the emotions. Grounding, when you when you have grounding through nature, whether it's going barefoot in the grass, whether it's listening to the birds or babbling, babbling brook, you know, water is very healing. And tears, tears are water, and it's and it's releasing. Tears are one of the best ways to regulate your nervous system. The best. And I want to give a shout-out to my friend Sheila because she deals with the lymphatic system and regulating your nervous system. And she's the one that shared with me and I learned from about the best way to regulate your nervous system is tears, is crying. So don't be ashamed if you have to cry. Don't beat yourself up if you're still crying. Don't let anyone tell you that you've cried enough and it's time to move on, it's time to get over it. Okay, because healing or crying is one of the best ways to heal, to release stress and anxiety, grief. It is one of the best ways to regulate your nervous system. Now, deep breathing, right? We went through last week the the um the square or the box breathing, right? The hand on the heart breathing, and uh back to touching. Remember, we did the butterfly hug. So these are things that you don't always need, you know, other people to help you with. You can do this healing uh in the in the moment, when you need it, when that edginess or when the heaviness hits you, when it comes out of the blue, you can do these things. Art can be very healing. Any type of sound, you know, music, harp music is very healing. It is it is physically healing for sicknesses and and uh diseases. It's been known to be very healing. But all sounds, you know, music, all sounds, nature, the birds singing, rain. We all know how a lot of times that can help us sleep. So there's a lot of sounds, a lot of uh music that can help us. Frequencies, frequencies have been proven, have been tested, studied, and show that they they can heal us. Safe connection with yourself and others is another way that helps with the shift, that helps move your regular uh your nervous system, helps regulate it, regulating your mind and your body from all those symptoms that we've gone through of how grief holds or how your body holds grief. This helps being safe, make making it a place where your body feels safe, safe enough to grieve and eventually to rest. That's what our aim is in balancing, resetting, regulating our nervous system through all these different ways. When you finally feel safe in your body, in your environment, when your nervous system has started to regulate, then you actually feel safe and you can feel safe and free to grieve and eventually to rest and to recover. And that is so important. So remember, grief is not just emotional, it's not just in our feelings, in our emotions. It can settle in our bodies. Our brain and our nervous system are constantly and consistently doing their best to protect us, to keep us safe from danger. And in times of grief, they see the threat not in actual danger, but in the loss that comes to our lives. So listen to your bodies is key to your healing. We need to learn to listen to our bodies so that we can bring compassion and healing to ourselves, to our own brain and nervous system. Now I am working on some products, some guides, devotional guides. And I'm in the pre-order stage. And so if you are interested in learning any more about the guides that I have to offer, then you can contact me at the caring deathdoula at gmail.com. You can get on social media and follow me and send me a DM, and I'll get the links to you. I have free guides as well as ones that you can purchase that go a little bit further, more in depth, more journal work, more application. I'm so very thankful you're here, and I really hope that these tips, these episodes where we've been focusing on grief not just being emotional, but held in our body and ways that we can learn to start balancing, healing, regulating our nervous system. I hope these have been beneficial. Please share with someone you know who's grieving. Let's get the word out there. Let's change the way our society handles grief, deals with death, and all the topics related to death and grieving that we don't want to talk about. Join me in this movement to change the world. I am the caring death doula, and I am here for you.