When the Heart Is Holding Grief

Love remains, even when everything else changes.

Sometimes life asks us to practice everything we have been learning, not on the mat, not in meditation, but in the moments when life feels most tender.

Recently, my mum passed away.

There are experiences for which there are no perfect words. Grief is one of them.

It can arrive as sadness, love, exhaustion, gratitude, disbelief, silence or all of these at once.

And I am learning that perhaps grief is not something we need to fix or rush through.

Perhaps it is something we learn to make space for.

The breath doesn't take grief away

I have spent many years exploring the breath as a way of coming home to ourselves. But in moments of loss, I am reminded that the breath is not there to make everything better.

Sometimes its role is much simpler.

To stay with us.

One breath.

Then another.

A reminder that we are here, even when part of our heart is somewhere else.

There have been moments when I haven't needed a technique or a practice. I have simply needed to notice my breathing and allow myself to feel what is present.

And perhaps this is part of what it means to live with an open heart.

An open heart is not a heart that never hurts.

It is a heart willing to love, knowing that love also makes us vulnerable to loss.

Making space for what is here

We often talk about letting go.

But sometimes we don't need to let go.

Sometimes we need to let be.

To allow sadness to be sadness.

To allow love to remain love.

To allow memories to come and go.

To allow the body to soften when it is ready.

There is no timeline for any of it.

And through it all, the breath can become a quiet place to return to, not to escape what we feel, but to create enough space to be with it.

Returning to the heart

At the end of October, I will return to holding space for our next breathwork experience:

Open Heart — Returning to Compassion.

When I originally created this experience, I knew it would explore compassion, forgiveness, receiving, connection and grief in its many forms.

Today, those words hold a different meaning for me.

This experience isn't only for someone grieving the loss of a person.

Grief can accompany endings, transitions, relationships, identities, dreams and the many changes life asks us to move through.

And sometimes we simply feel that we have protected our hearts for long enough.

This will be a space to breathe, to feel, to soften and to meet yourself exactly where you are.

Not to force the heart open.

Simply to give it space.

Because perhaps healing isn't always about leaving something behind.

Sometimes it is learning how to carry love differently.

Open Heart — Returning to Compassion
Tuesday 27 October · 7:30–8:30 PM
The OM Movement · Hornsby

If this experience speaks to you, I would love to share the space with you.

And if someone comes to mind who may need this kind of space right now, you are welcome to share it with them.

With love,
Mari
Shala Collective
A space to come home to yourself.