Week 1: We Are Not Alone — Companionship in Grief and Loss

Welcome and Introduction

“It’s no accident that you’re here. It may not be clear exactly why you’re here or what may happen. Trust whatever it is that brought you here.”

Opening Poem: Kahlil Gibran

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding…

Themes and Topics

• Telling our stories of loss; getting to know each other
• Compassionate listening and sharing what brings us joy
• Exploring beliefs and attitudes about grief
• Navigating interactions with others during grief
• Vision and goals for our time together

Core Concepts

• Companionship in grief — finding safety and support
• Emotional availability and embracing pain
• Growing in awareness, compassion, and understanding
• Living with grief — no set timetable
• Honoring your story and grief narrative
• Dealing with regret, unfinished business, and forgiveness
• Gratitude for shared time and for life itself
• Living with wholeness, resilience, hope, and peace
• Discovering deeper meaning and purpose
• Building new connections and enlarging the heart
• Ongoing bonds: Relationships never die

Practices

• Weekly Check-Ins
• Guided Meditation 1: Connecting with Ourselves and Our Loss

“How wonderful it is to be alive AND… Death is a natural part of life. Every goodbye is a moment of connection.”

Week 2: Embracing Loss — Dealing with the Hole in Our Hearts

Themes

• Despair and self-compassion
• Searching for meaning in the mystery of loss

Common Questions in Grief

• Why do I feel this way?
• Will the pain ever stop?
• Who am I now?
• Am I going crazy?
• What does “moving on” really mean?

Understanding Grief

• Definitions, types, forms
• Stages, phases, and tasks of grieving

Practice

• Guided Meditation 2: Embracing Loss
  A gentle journey inward into the heart space.

Week 3: Honoring and Letting Go of Judgment, Regret, and Guilt

Themes

• Noticing what needs healing
• Softening the hard places of judgment and blame
• Honoring unresolved emotions

Guided Practice

• Guided Meditation 3: Judgment, Regret, Guilt, and Forgiveness

“Allow a willingness to forgive, to heal, to be released and to release…”

Week 4: The Gifts of Grief — Transforming Pain into Gratitude

Opening Poem: “The Unbroken” by Rashani Réa

There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken…

Exploration

• Gratitude for the relationship we’ve lost
• Appreciation for how grief reshapes and expands us
• Saying “thank you” to life, even in sorrow

Gifts of Grief

• Inner strength and self-awareness
• Clarity around how we want to live
• Deepened love and purpose
• Letting go of what no longer serves us

Practice

• Guided Meditation 4: Cultivating Daily Gratitude

Week 5: Deepening into Life — Letting Go, Opening to Love, and Reclaiming Vision

Themes

• Letting go as an act of growth
• Embracing impermanence and love
• Self-acceptance: honoring both strengths and flaws
• Reclaiming life and aligning with personal vision

Journaling Prompts

• What does “moving forward” mean to you?
• What gifts and imperfections are you learning to love in yourself?
• What is your new vision for life?

Practice

• Guided Meditation 5: Moving Forward
  A future-focused reflection on your evolving relationship with your loved one and your life path.

Week 6: One Year to Live — Preparing for Our Own Death, Deepening into Life

Core Invitation

“Letting go of life itself…accepting and embracing death as an integral part of life.”

Reflection

• How fear of death limits living fully
• Bringing our grief journey back to ourselves
• Acknowledging our mortality with peace and openness

Guided Practice

• Guided Meditation 6: One Year to Live

“With one year left to live, what would you still like to heal, complete, or express, and how do you want to be remembered?”

Key Questions

• What unfinished business do you want to resolve?
• How do you want to live your remaining time?
• What legacy will you leave behind?