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...

When grieving, it feels like you are walking around without skin, everything is extra sensitive. When the world feels too much I go to a quiet spot and escape into a book....

In the Quaker practice of worship, friends come together, seated and facing one another, for an hour of silence. For the first few meetings, the silence can be uncomfortable. Maybe even unbearable. Fo...

When someone dies, you can thank them for their life. Walk around the house, inside or outside. Find something that makes you think about the person who died. Really think about that person. Thank the...

When a wave of grief strikes, fight the urge to run away. Remain on the shore and allow the wave to wash over you. Remind yourself that you won’t drown, and that the wave, like a tide, will go out a...

Set up a clean space at a flat work surface, and grab two things: a favorite pen or marker. a stack of blank paper. In the first attempts at this practice, it can be helpful to set a timer. Start with...

My beloved left this earth and left behind his belongings--his residue.

This simple activity may help ease your transition. • Draw a portrait of your beloved departed • Rescue their handkerchief (or apron, or other cloth of theirs) • Make a Grief Doll and keep it un...

"It takes 1,000 people for one person to grieve." Martín Prechtel Your village exists to witness this time. Your village existed from the moment you came here. Look around you. We will carry your gri...

Make your mark on the past. Having lost my dad aged 5 & several other people close to me throughout childhood, people expect my childhood to have been sad or dark. But in fact it was packed with c...

I wish......

Touch another person's hand and wait until the temperature becomes consistent. There is one more thing in common between you. If you are by yourself, put your hand on a surface or an object and wait u...

The outside must seem so scary, eh? I ask you to spare a minute or two to just stop whatever you are doing. Take this time for yourself. You are the culmination of your ancestors and their lived exper...

In grief, time feels like the enemy. Making music helped me find a better relationship with time when feeling difficult emotions. Even if you have not played in a long time, there is no bad time to ge...

We’re taught at a young age in school that form is in flux. Water can change its physical state from solid to liquid to gas a million times and never lose any part of itself. We forget this fact in...

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...

Read your favorite stories aloud and believe with all of your heart your loved one is listening closely to every page....

Get out some paints and let your mind relax. Paint large strokes or circles – It doesn’t have to be anything you recognize. Give each color a feeling, if you desire, and pick which colors you want...

What do we do simply for beauty or love or joy? What do we do to enrich others? We spend so much of our lives shuttling ourselves from home to work and back again, sometimes losing sight of our humani...