The Artists’
Grief Deck

Tell your story in colours and shapes: Gather some paper and art supplies -- anything you like. How would you draw the story of your loss without using any identifiable images, just shapes and colours...

Material objects often carry emotional and memorial value. What is an object that helps you remember your loved one? How would you describe this object? Is it soft? Hard? What other meanings does that...

Losses of life interrupt the general flow of our lives. Things are not as they were, and life can feel chaotic. One way of bringing order into the chaos of loss is to establish healthy routines. Set t...

Whenever I am grieving over the loss of my loved ones, I talk to them in my head about whatever it is I’m going through, knowing that I won’t be able to hear their answer but also believing that t...

When you've lost someone, it can be very hard to ground yourself and accept that they're really gone. While it's absolutely fine to cry over someone you've lost, overdoing it isn't healthy. A great w...

Go in front of the whitest wall in your house. Put your right cheek on the wall, it's like hearing the voice of the wall. Close your both eyes and think about baby hands- with all the details- chubby...

Take a nap without guilt...

Our world has been in disarray from COVID-19 since March. If you’re like me and have a paper calendar, the following months look strange, empty, and not even representative of our own lives. Spend t...

Upon lighting — becoming aware of anything you are grieving or wanting to honor as it is lost to the earth and the stars — (ex. a person, or beliefs about this country, world, a relationship, a pa...

remember and count your ancestors generously you are not alone find the place that knows this inheritance well - the nook of your elbow, the curve of your hair let yourself feel some light - the wind...

If a quality or idea someone’s brought to our lives lives on is us, a part of that someone survives, and in remembering what we’ve learned from them, we re-member ourselves: learn how and who to b...

When I lost my mom it was devastating and it was a hard thing to take in. Something that helped me cope was to talk to a picture of her and hold her ashes. This made me feel close to her and that she...

Remember a vanished place of personal importance. Describe it, by writing or speaking of it....

Elisabeth Elliot wrote a simple definition of suffering in her book Suffering is Never for Nothing. She defines suffering in this way: Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don...

Create and collaborate. Use an item belonging to your loved one to create something new. T-shirts may become a quilt or a pillow. Photos and letters may become a collage. You might listen to their fav...

Take a Cue From Poetry What is your favorite poem? Put it in your own words. In the original poem below, I substitute the word hope for grief from the first line of Emily Dickinson’s poem “‘Hope...

Imagine a vase with flowers and those flowers are the person you are missing (if you have a vase and real flowers, this will work). Now imagine the smell of the flowers and picture the person. Does th...

Everyone has a story to tell. Today, you have the chance to tell a part of your story in 6 words. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Take some quiet time in a peaceful space and think about wh...

Often when we go through a major change in our lives, we unknowingly mourn the loss of that version of ourselves. This death of a self can also occur through good change, and we get confused about why...