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Welcome the Institute for Compassionate Grieving

Learning Library

Please see the content library below. Scroll down to see the somatic segments from each class. Scroll down further for access to the full classes. Use the buttons to navigate to the main course page for specific classes you wish to see!
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Class Overviews 

Softening the Guarded Heart

Softening the Guarded Heart is a somatic grief practice exploring how the heart protects itself after loss. When grief overwhelms, contraction and armor can limit our capacity to feel and connect. Through gentle breath, movement, and nervous system support, we explore love as a stabilizing force not sentimentality, but a deep, organizing presence that restores coherence, connection, and the heart’s ability to feel without breaking.

Listening Beneath the Surface

Listening Beneath the Surface is a wintering practice for grief that invites stillness, inward attention, and nervous system settling. In this class, we explore how grief in winter becomes quieter and more tender, asking not for action but for presence. Through gentle somatic practices, we learn to listen to the body, honor fatigue, soften effort, and trust the wisdom that emerges when nothing is forced. This practice supports rest, safety, and the quiet germination that happens beneath the surface of grief.

Clearing Emotional Inflammation

In this class, we explored clearing emotional inflammation through the liver meridian, which governs the smooth flow of qi. We examined how emotional suppression leads to stagnation affecting mood, digestion, immunity, and connection. Through gentle qi massage and flowing movement, we supported emotional release, restored circulation, and cultivated resilience so grief could move with greater ease, clarity, and peace.
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3 minutes | Gentle Warmups

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9 minutes | Tranquility Flows and Meditation (Part 1)

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7 minutes | Tranquility Flows and Meditation (Part 2)

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10 minutes | Emotional Release Exercises (Part 1)

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7 minutes | Emotional Release Exercises (Part 2)

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6 minutes |   Emotional Release Exercises (Part 3)

Nourishing and Clearing Grief-Gut

In this class, we explored the "grief-gut" and what happens do digestion when grief hits. We explore  how emotional overwhelm can weaken digestive fire and through gentle somatic tools such as softening the belly, grounding through the feet, Belly Clock Massage, vagal self-soothing, and relaxation practices, we supported Agni, eased emotional stagnation, and strengthened our capacity to “digest life” with greater steadiness and compassion.
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6 minutes │Somatic Relief for Grief-Gut (Part 1)

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7 minutes │Somatic Relief for Grief-Gut (Part 2)

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6 minutes | Grounding Earth & Nourishment Practice (Part 1)

6 minutes | Grounding Earth & Nourishment Practice (Part 1)

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7 minutes | Grounding Earth & Nourishment Practice (Part 2)

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9 minutes |  Healing Digestion Meditation

Holiday Embodiment Grief Toolkit

This class introduced an Embodied Grief Toolkit to support navigating the holidays. We used acupressure for the hands and feet to boost energy and relieve emotional stagnation, then practiced sensing the emotional body to help grief move with more ease. By opening energetic pathways and building vitality, the class offered practical tools to face holiday stress with greater flow, resilience, and compassion.
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7 minutes │Feet Acupressure Mental Clarity (Part 1)

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6 minutes │Feet Acupressure Mental Clarity (Part 2)

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10 minutes │ Energetic Boundaries

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8 minutes │Expanding Your Emotional Body

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5 minutes  | Hand Acupressure Vitality

Lungs, Immunity, and Grief

This class focused on the connection between lungs, immunity, and grief during the fall season. We explored how grief can create “lung-ache,” constricting breath and weakening vitality. Through lung-meridian movement, functional breathing, and an emotional alchemy meditation, we supported respiratory health, strengthened immunity, and created space for grief to soften and move.
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5 minutes │Whole Body Grief Practice (Part 1)

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10 minutes │Whole Body Grief Practice (Part 2)

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9 minutes  | Immune Support Practice (Part 1)

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2 minutes │ Immune Support Practice (Part 2)

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7 minutes │Humming Meditation to Alchemize Emotions

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7 minutes │Tracing the Lung Meridian

Strengthening the Heart's Capacity to Grieve

In this class, we explored the heart’s profound capacity to hold both love and grief. The heart can contain what the mind cannot comprehend, embracing contradictions like joy and sorrow at once. Through functional breathing and somatic movement, we strengthened emotional resilience and coherence, allowing the heart to hold and release grief with compassion and peace.
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5 minutes │Basic Warm-Ups (Part 1)

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6 minutes │Basic Warm-Ups (Part 2)

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4 minutes │Basic Warm-Ups (Part 3)

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7 minutes │Basic Warm-Ups (Part 4)

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7 minutes │Strengthening the Heart's Capacity to Love (Part 1)

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4 minutes │Strengthening the Heart's Capacity to Love (Part 2)

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10 minutes │Restful Sleep Routine

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5 minutes │Acupressure Meditation for Sleep

Creativity for Grief

Grief can feel overwhelming, disorienting, and heavy. In this class, we explore creativity as a somatic pathway to process emotions, release stagnation, and integrate grief. Using Qi Gong, free-flow dance, alternate nostril breathing, and Neurographic art, participants open energy flow, enhance emotional regulation, and transform grief into meaningful, expressive, and healing creative practices.
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5 minutes │Alternate Nostril Breathing for Mental Clarity

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8 minutes│Somatic Flow to Release Creative Blocks (Part 1)

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8 minutes│Somatic Flow to Release Creative Blocks (Part 2)

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5 minutes│Neurographic Art

Forgiveness and Resentment

This class explores forgiveness in grief, honoring the layers of pain and anger held in the body. Using Somatic Relief for Grief practices, we release held emotions, process cathartic energy, and integrate the experience with self-forgiveness. Forgiveness is framed as personal freedom, a practice of acknowledging harm, giving space to grief, and cultivating emotional resilience and compassion.
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7 minutes │ Releasing Anger

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8 minutes │ Releasing Resentment

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11 minutes│ Self Forgiveness

Nourishing Resilience

This class focuses on building resilience by nourishing Jing, a Chinese Medical concept and the vital energy housed in the kidneys. Through gentle floor-based exercises, we support the lower back, replenish deep reserves, and cultivate inner strength. By activating this core energy, participants learn to hold groundlessness, face grief with buoyancy, and integrate profound loss with greater emotional and physical resilience.
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12 minutes│ Cradle of Calming

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15 minutes │ Restorative Ground Pose

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8 minutes │ Rooted Stillness Meditation

Letting Go Through the Five Elements

This class explores letting go through the lens of the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. We engage in somatic exercises, breathwork, and meditation to release stagnant energy, honor grief, and allow love to flow. Letting go is reframed as integration, holding on in a new way, and cultivating emotional resilience while supporting the natural cycles of grief.
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12 minutes │ Forward Fold Release

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11 minutes │ Elemental Flowing 

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 12 minutes │ Breath and Movement Release

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5 minutes │ Arms of Ease

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8 minutes │ Meditation and Closing Flow

Overcoming Emotional Numbness

In this class, we explore emotional numbness in grief as a defense mechanism when feelings become overwhelming. Through somatic practices, breathwork, and mindfulness, we help release emotional shutdown and create space for honest expression. By shifting from avoidance to awareness, we build emotional resilience and reconnect with unprocessed feelings, gently thawing the numbness to heal and move through grief.
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9 minutes │ Activating Exercise to Start

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Gentle Warms Ups for Nourishment (Part 1)

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Gentle Warms Ups for Nourishment (Part 2)

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10 minutes │ Activating Exercise to End

Alleviating Fear and Trauma

In this class, we explored how grief and trauma trigger both emotional and physiological responses. We focused on reducing fear and stress by enhancing vagal tone through breathing techniques like diaphragmatic breathing, which calms the nervous system and restores balance. We also practiced a Gratitude Meditation to reconnect with the body’s resilience, helping release fear and trauma while promoting healing and emotional clarity.
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10 minutes │ Learning to Take a Deep Breath

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 4 minutes │ Breath for Immediate Relief

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11 minutes │ Body Gratitude Practice

Enhancing Mental Clarity

In this class, we explored how grief impacts mental clarity and focus. We stimulated the peripheral nervous system, a key to clearing the mental fog by using exercises of the hands and fingers. Rhythmic movement increased circulation, supporting brain activity and emotional regulation. We finished with a meditation to improve attention, reduce emotional dysregulation, and enhance overall focus. The replay is now available in your portal!
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8 minutes │ Sitting Practice for Mental Clarity

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14 minutes│ Standing Practice for Brain Circulation

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11 minutes │ Meditation for Focus and Attention

Working Through Regret

In this class, we focus on releasing the weight of regret that often lingers in our grief journey. Regret can keep us bound to the past, replaying "what ifs" and "should haves." We work to free ourselves from the mental loops of regret using somatic practices that promote self-compassion and forgiveness. The class includes journaling exercises to confront regret, as well as movements that release stored emotions in the body, leaving room for peace and a renewed sense of inner trust.
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2 minutes │ Low Sound, Deep Release

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3 minutes │ Meridian Activation Through Hand Taps

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10 minutes │ Ground Form the Back Breath + Motion

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3 minutes │ Grounded Meditation and Dance Release

Getting through Guilt

In this class, we explore the powerful and often misunderstood emotion of guilt that accompanies grief. Guilt can keep us stuck in the past, falsely making us believe we’ve done harm when, in fact, we haven’t. We use somatic practices to release the tension associated with guilt, allowing us to reclaim our emotional freedom. The class includes writing exercises to express suppressed emotions, followed by physical practices to open the throat and chest, creating space for forgiveness and healing.
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6 minutes │ Breath, Forgiveness, and Guilt Release

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5 minutes │ Spine Activation with Forward + Back

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6 minutes │ Heart Wake-Up Tap, Breathe, Expand

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7 minutes │ Acupuncture Point Tap-In for Quick Relief

More Energy!!

In this class, we focus on cultivating energy to support the grieving process. Grief and emotional stress often drain our energy, leaving us feeling exhausted or overwhelmed. By using somatic practices to release stagnation, we activate life force energy and enhance vitality. The class includes strength-building leg exercises, energy alignment, and breathing techniques to restore balance, helping us move through grief with more ease and emotional resilience.

Supporting Digestion During Grief

In this class, we explore the connection between emotional stress and digestive health. Grief and emotional stress often disrupt digestion, leading to discomfort. We focus on increasing Agni (digestive fire) using Ayurvedic practices to support emotional processing. The class includes strength-building leg exercises, digestive massage, and somatic practices to align the digestive system, helping us release emotional tension and restore balance.

Cultivating Awe!

Cultivating Awe is a practice to find stability in grief’s chaos. Grief often distorts our sense of time, bringing up overwhelming emotions and existential questions. In this practice, we use mindfulness to ground ourselves in the present moment and open space for joy to coexist with grief. This class use the 5-4-3-2-1 mindfulness exercise to engage the senses re-orient the disorientation. This practice shifts the brain’s emotional regulation, creating compassion and empathy. We also use movement practices to set up two other somatic meditations to cultivate Awe!
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3 minutes │ Gentle Rhythm Reset

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6 minutes │ Grounded Groove Flow

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6 minutes │ Heart-Opening Meditation

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8 minutes │ Chakra Meditation

Bringing in Joy

Joy and grief can seem like opposites, but grief is a complex response that includes anger, sadness, fear, and even joy. Often, joy is used to suppress grief or replace it, masking the discomfort. In the Somatic Relief for Grief approach, we don’t push grief away; we invite it in. Grief is love seeking a place to go, and the more grief we experience, the more love we’ve had. Today’s class uses somatic practices to activate the heart meridian and create space for joy to coexist with grief, followed by a loving-kindness meditation to continue healing.
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3 minutes │ Embracing Arm Sweep

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7 minutes │ Heart-Opening Arm Sweep

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6 minutes │ Chakra Wake-Up Movement

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11 minutes │ Gentle Arm Offering

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5 minutes │ Horizontal Arm Openings

Releasing Anger

In this class, we tackled the powerful connection between anxiety and grief, offering practical tools to release stress and calm the mind. Using breathing techniques, mindfulness practices, and Qi Gong exercises, you’ll learn how to regulate your nervous system, quiet racing thoughts, and release pent-up emotions. If you’re struggling with overwhelm, uncertainty, or fear, this class will give you actionable strategies to reclaim calm and emotional balance.
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8 minutes │ Mindful Belly Breathing

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7 minutes │ Gentle Neck Turns & Tilts

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4 minutes │ Releasing Arm Press

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5 minutes │ Cross-Body Arm Sweep

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6 minutes │ Gentle Shaking Release

Letting Go of Shame

In this class, we explore how shame and grief are deeply interconnected. Shame often distorts our experience of grief, making us feel like we’re not grieving “correctly” or that there’s something fundamentally wrong with us. These beliefs, are often created early in our childhood and reinforced by societal myths that create emotional suppression that locks grief deep inside, In this session, we’ll uncover how these limiting beliefs affect our grief journey and introduce practices to release shameThis is a journey of unlearning old narratives and embracing a new, more compassionate way to grieve.
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10 minutes│ Deep Grounding and Redirection

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5 minutes│ Surrender to Stillness

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8 minutes│ Spacious Body Flow

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8 minutes│Mudra Breathing Technique

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7 minutes│Energy Wring Reset

Navigating Anxiety 

In this class, we tackled the powerful connection between anxiety and grief, offering practical tools to release stress and calm the mind. Using breathing techniques, mindfulness practices, and Qi Gong exercises, you’ll learn how to regulate your nervous system, quiet racing thoughts, and release pent-up emotions. If you’re struggling with overwhelm, uncertainty, or fear, this class will give you actionable strategies to reclaim calm and emotional balance.
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4 minutes│Circulate & Clear Flow

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9 minutes│Nerve-Calm Body Sweep

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7 minutes│Breath-Body Harmony

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4 minutes│Hand Flow for Grounding and Connection

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3 minutes│Bio-Somatic Brain Stimulation

Better Sleep

Better Sleep can feel elusive for many of us—whether it’s falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up rested. When grieving, sleep challenges are even more intense. We may feel exhausted yet unable to sleep, or overly active and struggling with constant tiredness. This paradox is linked to energy. Grief demands so much cognitive energy to process emotions, causing our energy to fluctuate like a rollercoaster. In this class, we explore effective sleep routines and exercises to help manage energy, not just before bed, but throughout the day, helping you restore rest and vitality.
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9 minutes│ Shoulder and Arm Shake-Off

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7 minutes│Hip Shake-Off

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6 minutes│Tension Release Reset

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4 minutes│Qigong Meditation

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2 minutes│Swedish Meditation

Easing Neck and Jaw Pain 

The shoulders, neck, and jaw often hold the most tension in our bodies, carrying the weight of our emotions and stress. Shallow breathing, common with anxiety and grief, can make this worse by causing the diaphragm and ribs to stiffen, leading to tightness in the neck and upper chest. Unprocessed emotions, like grief, create "holding patterns" in the body, disrupting sleep and causing jaw clenching or teeth grinding. Today’s class will help release this tension through breathing exercises, massage, meridian theory, and acupressure, creating lightness and space for emotional release.
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11 minutes│Facial Flow Ritual

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5 minutes│Inhale Ease, Exhale Tension Meditation

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6 minutes│Shake Through the Meridians

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7 minutes│Arm + Chest Opening Practice

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7 minutes│Grounding Press Points Ritual

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7 minutes│Reflective Breathing for Soft Release

Opening to the New - Jan 1st Class

Newness isn’t just tied to holidays or special moments—it exists in every breath, in the space between stimulus and reaction, and in the presence of choice. Today’s class on Somatic Relief for Grief is about embracing that spaciousness. It’s not about compartmentalizing or leaving the past behind, but about evolving—integrating the hidden parts of ourselves with wisdom and insight. The New Year can bring grief to the surface, highlighting past losses and absences, but it also offers an opening for possibility. In today’s class, we’ll explore how grief and possibility can coexist, holding space for both, as we create new energy and potential for the year ahead.
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8 minutes│Grounding Palm Over Chest Practice

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7 minutes│Hand-to-Body Messaging Ritual

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6 minutes│Shake Off the Rigidity

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5 minutes│Hand to Heart Meditation

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4 minutes│Sacred Stillness with Hands at Heart

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3 minutes│Grounded Warm-Up

Bonus!! Class replay from January 1st

Sitting and Standing Practices Available!

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25 min Somatic Sitting Practice

Somatic Relief for Grief January 1st Replay
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12 min Standing Practice

Somatic Relief for Grief January 1st Replay
Bonus!

7-Min Practice to Quiet the Mind

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Here's an abbreviated practice from the longer version we did together on December 18th. Let's create flow and rhythm to quiet the mind! Play the video here or practice within the course platform
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