Grief support means more than human care

Sometimes when we're grieving, we hold onto a single idea of what we believe support should look like, feeling stung, lonely, bewildered, betrayed when the people we thought would be there fade to the edges of our lives. But the truth is we are always in relationship to support.

Your body wants to move this grief — and other self-care tips

I often turn to movement as one of the most reliable tools in my grief toolbox. Sometimes this dance is prayer. Sometimes fire. Or a thousand tears unlocked. Always, it is the deepest of self-care.

Grief is lonely: here are five ways to find support

There is a unique loneliness to grief that is one of its searing, undeniable truths. Still, you deserve to be seen and validated in your grief, to find a haven where you can safely be with and give voice to your pain.

grief, grief and loss, grief coaching, grief support, grief tools, surviving griefNaila FrancisJanuary 17, 2022grief and loss, grief care, grief and healing, pandemic grief, grieving, grief journey, loneliness, grief community, grief support Comment

A Griever's Holiday Declaration

I let go of expectations, “shoulds” and thoughts of what the holidays are “supposed to be” … and other declarations and affirmations to help you make room for your grief in a season of blaring, bruising joy.

grief, grief and loss, grief coaching, grief healing, grief journey, grief support, grief tools, yogaNaila FrancisDecember 7, 2021grief and loss, grief, grief care, holiday grief, grieving, grief awareness, grief supportComment

A meditation for renewal

A guided meditation to help you connect to moments of resilience and nourishment on your grief journey.

grief, grief and loss, grief support, grief tools, meditationsNaila FrancisApril 11, 2021meditations, grief and loss, grief and healing, grief care, emotional resilience, grief meditation, grief support, tending griefComment

What you believe about grief could be getting in the way of your healing

Most of us do not have models of healthy grief. All we know is what we’ve seen and experienced, what we’ve taken from the journeys of other grievers about how grief is done.

Naila FrancisJanuary 23, 2021grief and loss, grief care, grief journey, grieving, grief and healing, coping with grief, sadness, sorrow, space for griefComment

Saying goodbye to a year of grief and loss: a guide for reflecting

I do not make resolutions, haven’t for years. Yet I believe in looking back, if only to look forward, to see what we wish to carry into the new year, what we’re consciously choosing to leave behind. To acknowledge and honor who we are because of all we’ve lived.

grief support, grief tools, grief coaching, grief and loss, grief journeyNaila FrancisDecember 31, 2020goodbye 2020, new year's eve, welcoming a new year, grief journaling, ending the year, a new year, word of the year, hello 2021, a year of grief, holiday grief, grief careComment

Crystal Augustono: to heal is to fall in love with ourselves again

“Healing is for EVERYONE, but I feel that right now, BIPOC need it more than ever.. So right now, I’m asking myself and others, how can I hold space for myself and other women of color in this climate of chaos?” - Crystal Augustono

Naila FrancisAugust 24, 2020reiki, reiki healing, reiki energy, energy medicine, grief care series, grief care, coping with grief, grief tools, grief support, BIPOC healers, BIPOC wellness, bipoc healing, black healers, black wellness, black grief Comment

Diana Quinn Inlak’ech: the struggle for liberation includes reclaiming space for grief and healing

“I’ve come to believe that a big part of the sacred work that many of us came to do in these times is to restore our ancestral practices of grieving, tending to death and dying, and simply being in relationship with our ancestors.” - Dr. Diana Quinn Inlak’ech

Naila FrancisAugust 17, 2020grief care, grief and healing, black wellness, indigenous wellness, BIPOC healing, BIPOC wellness, healing justice, black grief, BIPOC healers, black healers, indigenous healers, healing and social justice, movement support, Diana Quinn Inlak'ech, naturopathic medicine Comment

Compassionate Support for Coping with Grief: Grief Blog and Counseling

Often it is because we have held great pain that we are able to embrace great joy when it arrives — to take both, the aching sadness, the sweetest pleasure, and find in them fertile ground for the refashioning of our lives.