Mindful Movement for Restoring Joy After Loss - Grief Yoga®
- michellekthrives
- Sep 29, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2025
6-Week Workshop Series | REGISTER HERE
📍 Waunakee Village Center
🗓 Mondays, November 3 – December 8
⏰ 6:15 – 7:45 pm
After several years of deep study and practice—including a Grief Support Specialist Certification from UW–Madison Continuing Studies, a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in Thailand, an additional 100-hour Grief Yoga® training, Grief Educator Certification with David Kessler, and Compassionate Bereavement Care Yoga training with Karla Helbert (author of Yoga for Grief and Loss) and Dr. Joanne Cacciatore (author of Bearing the Unbearable)—I feel honored to now share what I’ve been learning.
More than just trainings, my teaching is rooted in my own personal grief journey after the traumatic loss of my 18-year-old son. It is from both knowledge and lived experience that I invite you to join me for this upcoming 6-week Grief Yoga® class series.
Why Grief Yoga®?
Grief changes everything—our minds, our hearts, and even our bodies. When we experience loss or trauma, the pain doesn’t just live in our thoughts; it can become trapped in our nervous system and tissues. If we don’t take time to lean into and process that pain, it can manifest as chronic stress, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, sleep problems, or even long-term illness.
That’s why practices that restore balance to the parasympathetic nervous system—the body’s “rest and digest” response—are so essential. They help bring us back into equilibrium, allowing us to soften tension, ease the heart, and find a sense of safety again.
One beautiful pathway to this healing is Grief Yoga ®.
I discovered Grief Yoga® about a year into my loss, when I still felt as though the pain was living in every cell of my body. I was terrified it would never ease, and I knew I needed to find a way forward—I couldn’t imagine the rest of my life living in this deep pain. On a family vacation, I brought along the book Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss Into Empowerment by Paul Denniston, the creator of Grief Yoga. As I practiced some of the movements, I found them to be a sacred way of tending to my grief—leaning into the pain with intention, gently releasing it, and even discovering moments of connection with my son through the meditative practices.
The experience was so profound that I began joining Paul’s monthly online group, Spark, and made it a regular part of my week. Very quickly, I realized: I want to bring this healing practice to others in our Madison community!
What is Grief Yoga®?
Grief Yoga isn’t about flexibility or perfecting poses. It’s accessible to everyone, regardless of yoga experience. This compassionate practice uses gentle movement, breath, sound, and meditation to release the pain of grief and reconnect with empowerment, love, and joy.
Through a process called the Cycle of Compassionate Transformation, we move together through four stages:
Awareness – We begin with breath and simple movements that bring us into the present moment. Awareness allows us to notice what’s held in the body and creates the space for acceptance.
Expression – Once aware of our emotions, we use movement, breath, and sound to release what weighs on us—whether it be fear, anger, heartbreak, guilt, shame, or other painful emotions. Expression frees what might otherwise keep us stuck in suffering.
Connection – We restore connection with ourselves, with others, with spirit, and with our loved ones who have died. Practices include heart-opening meditations, compassionate witnessing, and even moments of laughter to lighten the heaviness.
Surrender – Finally, we slow down, soften, and let go. Surrendering doesn’t mean losing love; it means releasing the struggle and resting in trust, peace, and presence.
Each class ends with grounding movements, relaxation, and meditation, leaving you supported and restored.
The 6-Week Class Journey
Over the course of six weeks, we will explore different themes inspired by The Book of Joy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. These themes—what they have identified as the eight core pillars of joy: Compassion, Generosity, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Humor, Humility, Acceptance, and Perspective—offer guiding lights for our practice.
While joy can seem unattainable when we are deep in grief, we can begin by focusing on one or two of these pillars each week, gently re-introducing joy into our lives.
Every session will include:
✨ Gentle mindful movement
✨ Breath practices and meditation
✨Themed journaling prompts and take-home therapeutic activities
✨ Time for community connection and sharing
Grief Yoga offers a safe place to let your body and breath express what words sometimes cannot.
Why join?
To release the weight of stored pain in the body
To strengthen your resilience and restore balance in your nervous system
To feel supported in community and know you are not alone
To gently open to the possibility of joy, even while carrying grief
A Closing Wish
My wish for you in this series is that you find moments of release, connection, and lightness—and discover that joy can indeed coexist with grief, not as an either/or but as a both/and. For at its heart, grief is love.
I would be honored to walk alongside you on your grief and healing journey!
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