Managing the energy of grief in the physical body

Grief is what we feel when we encounter a loss or enact empathy over someone else’s loss. Loss implies separation; a separation from our loved ones, from community, from ourselves, and etherically, a separation from the oneness of our own shared divinity. It shows up, symptomatically in a variety and multitude of ways. And it may, in fact, be the heaviest hitting of all emotions we endure.

If we look at it pragmatically, grief seems to be the accompanying feeling to change, playing the role of the Alpha and the Omega, signaling an end and thus a beginning. Given that, it would appear that grief is brought about by transition. A letting go of what once was and a preparation for what will be, neither of which are comfortable, so perhaps grieving is the outward expression of growing pains and a movement into a different understanding than what was once perceived. If our existence as human beings is anything, it is that of constant change. Our duty is to grasp the understanding of managing the constant change, with benevolence, compassion, and love, for ourselves and the rest of our human family.

Right now, our entire planet is writhing in the pangs of grief. No revolution or great paradigm shifts are free from the pain of breaking the mold and recasting into the new. And while the strength gained from such feats is great, such is the impact of withstanding the turmoil of breaking through.

Whether your mind is aware that you are processing grief or not (you see we have this amazing ability to block things out of our conscious reality that we don’t want to deal with), one thing is for sure, you may be able to block it out from your mind, but NEVER the body. The body is ALWAYS conscious and ALWAYS processing energies, that’s how it is programmed to survive.

Dealing with the energy of grief does not reside only within the emotional body. The energy of grief most readily presents emotionally, yet has a massive impact on our physical body. Within the chakra system, the heart chakra deals with vibrations of grief. When we are sad or mourning, our posture slumps forward and our shoulders cave in; this is a physical response to the energetic message we are receiving, to protect the heart; the precious epicenter of all feeling. When we feel moved, by either sadness or joy, we clench our chest, its an automatic response of body language denoting that we FEEL an intense emotion, and it resides within our heart space.

As we process these feelings, our body reacts. When we feel great joy, which strengthens our energetic body, we throw our arms open, ready to embrace anything the beautiful world has to offer. When we are grieving, we feel more fragile and raw, and tend to close our body down in order to protect the sanctity of the little bit we feel there is left in our heart. Over time the latter of these two scenarios poses problematic. The more we feel we need to close off, the more our body reacts, the more our body reacts to closing off, the more our mind believes in the long lasting idea of fragility, and we get stuck in a detrimental cycle and posture of our body. Often times this is not even a conscious realization. Thus, the point of this article, is to raise the awareness of the energy residing in your body and offers some tools to manage it.

The attached video includes some suggested openings to counteract the energetic effects of grief on the physical body, which may assist with the emotional toll of grieving. Remember we are dynamic, it’s important to tend to all your bodies, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, all of which are energetic and all of which are a part of YOU!

Be it known that the antidote to grief is compassion.

Compassion must start with the self.