The Artists’
Grief Deck
How-to
Welcome to the Artists’ Grief Deck. There is no correct way to use these cards, but we have these suggestions:
- Set aside time for yourself to go through them
- Find or make a space for yourself
- Look closely at the images
- Be open to the feelings that arise
A Grief Doll
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...
Click to ContinueStorytime
Read your favorite stories aloud and believe with all of your heart your loved one is listening closely to every page....
Click to ContinueAfter Life
What do you believe happens after a person dies?...
Click to ContinueGrieving the loss of control
Losing someone or something important to us brings home the fact there is much in life we cannot control. Control is something we thought we had, but ultimately there are many things in life we cannot...
Click to ContinueWhere do you feel most at home?
Where do you feel most at home? Try to remember the feeling of falling asleep in unguarded comfort, in complete connection with your surroundings. Losing someone can make you lose touch with yourself,...
Click to ContinueUnfurling
Interplaying with the grief. Put on a piece of music (3-5 min long instrumental works great) and begin to move. Taking care of your body and listening - Does it need to move gently with a swaying moti...
Click to ContinueGenerational Trauma
A meditation in three aspects Science has shown that trauma is passed down generationally through our DNA. In this time of forced isolation, take a moment to meditate on this healing. There are no rig...
Click to ContinueTwo Way Road
Sometimes we feel our life is an only one way road. Immersed in suffering and loving we believe there is only one construction. May be we can repair or rebuild part of the road and ourselves. Try to g...
Click to ContinueWants and Haves
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...
Click to ContinueConnecting through Letter Writing
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...
Click to ContinueRe-membering
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...
Click to ContinueWashed Ashore
We often ‘bottle’ up our emotions because they are just too much to deal with. We might cork them up and throw them out into the ocean hoping they will leave us forever. But without paying attenti...
Click to ContinueHolding Vigil
This image reenacts the final weeks of my mother's life, holding vigil in her room, surrounded by condolence flowers, waiting for death to relieve her pain. Having experienced the anticipatory grief o...
Click to ContinueThe Weight of Grief
Handling grief can feel like an immense weight is on our shoulders. A weight that leaves no room to breathe and is vast and lonely. It's important to remember that there will be moments when the weigh...
Click to ContinueCoping with Waves of Grief
Sometimes large waves of grief overcome me during the oddest parts of the day, while I’m at work or walking to the subway. I don’t always have an outlet in those moments. Life doesn’t always mak...
Click to ContinueIf Only
Regret may come with your grief. "If only", "I shouldn't have...", "I wish I..." The feeling of regret can be crushing but most emotions are here to serve you. Your regret tries to teach you what to d...
Click to ContinueSubliming
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...
Click to ContinueLet it go
What you've lost is no longer with you, but your memories of it are. Hold them inside of you and keep them alive. Keep yourself alive. Breathe. Hold that breath in, let it go. In, and out, and in agai...
Click to ContinueWhat To Do When You’re Angry
Scribble with crayons on multiple newspaper sheets. Crumple up each newspaper sheet into a ball. Find a dartboard or target outside to throw each of these balls at and let your physical energy transfe...
Click to Continue