Why Grief Work Is Essential to Fulfilling Your Potential

A woman approached me after taking my yin yoga class. Her sister had brought her to class, and she admitted that she had come somewhat reluctantly.

She shared that she had suffered a miscarriage a few months ago, and felt guilty for taking time to come to class — to do something for herself.

Then she shared that in the stillness of the yin practice, she experienced a wave of grief that finally came to the surface. She hadn’t realized how much grief she had still been holding.

Feeling safe in the space I created, she was able to allow herself to process through the emotions that were arising.

Her share affirmed the power of creating space to honor and process our grief. We often don’t realize how much we are holding until we bring it to the surface to release it.

The Fear of Grief

Some of my clients are resistant to speaking about or working with their grief.

They fear that acknowledging grief will make them depressed, keep them stuck, and steal their happiness. They don’t want to dwell in the sadness.

This fear is based on a misconception.

How Grief Keeps You Stuck

Grief only steals your joy when you don’t honor it.

It’s not the grief that causes depression.

Instead, it’s the unprocessed grief that causes depression.

The unacknowledged, suppressed, and depressed emotions become a heavy weight that keep us feeling stuck both physically and emotionally.

Unacknowledged grief can also manifest as anxiety, sadness, hopelessness, rage, and anger.

There’s a saying, what we resist, persists.

How Processing Grief Helps You Expand Your Potential

Nobody likes to talk about grief. But if you don’t talk about it, it will remain in the shadows, subtly influencing your actions and thoughts.

Our potential in life is found in our ability to breathe fully. The breath powers everything we do. When we expand our lungs’ capacity, we literally expand our physical capacity to handle more of life, to work with greater focus, and to experience more joy.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the emotion of grief is associated with the lungs.

Unexpressed grief can become a heavy invisible load that sits on the chest and weighs down our shoulders.

When we are holding grief, we don’t breathe fully.

And when we don’t breathe fully, we lose our potency, our power, and our productivity.

If you want to fulfill your potential, you must be willing to unload the heavy burden of grief, to process the emotions that arise, so that you can breathe and move with greater ease.