PRACTICES & GUIDANCE

Small rituals, reflections, and companions for living with grief, change, belonging, and uncertainty.

This page gathers practices, reflections, and resources that have been meaningful to me as a grief worker, death doula, writer, and fellow traveler. Some are formal; most are not.

Take what serves you.

Leave what doesn't.

Return when you need to.


Black and white line drawing of a bow and arrow, with the arrow placed in the bow, ready to shoot.

A Few Gentle Practices

The Impermanence Ritual

A simple practice for sitting with change through the natural world. Take something ephemeral: a leaf, a flower. Hold it in your hands. Feel its edges, its texture, its warmth or coolness. Now, close your eyes and listen. What does it tell you about change? About loss? About what remains? Write down one thing you are afraid to lose. One thing that is already gone. One thing you want to carry forward. Then, when you’re ready, release the object. Let the wind take the leaf. Let the flower return to the soil. And know that grief is not just an ending, it is also a doorway.

Grief Walks

Walk somewhere slowly. Leave your phone behind. Ask:

What am I carrying?
What am I resisting?
What wants my attention?

Listen more than you answer.

The Name Practice

Write down the names of those you miss. Speak them aloud. Notice what happens in your body: the tightening, the softening, the place where they still live in you. Sit with that place. Memory is a form of companionship. The body knows this even when the mind has moved on.

The Attention Practice

Where you place your attention shapes your experience. Take a breath. Look around. What is asking to be witnessed right now? Bring your attention gently back to what is real.

Outline of a fern leaf on a black background.
Illustration of a woman with gray hair, orange top, beige pants, and gray shoes, walking on a black background.
Outline of a human heart with labeled veins and arteries
A stylized gold eye with rays emanating from it on a black background.
Gold outline of a butterfly with leaves on a black background.

Grief has no syllabus.

Some days a practice will feel meaningful. Some days it will feel impossible.

Neither means you're doing it wrong.

These invitations are not prescriptions. They are simply places to begin.

Outline drawing of a butterfly with yellow lines on a black background.

Seasonal Guidance

If grief feels fresh
Choose a practice that lets you witness.

If grief feels stuck
Choose a practice that involves movement.

If grief feels overwhelming
Choose a practice that narrows your attention to one thing.

If grief feels distant
Choose a practice that invites remembering.

Gold contour lines forming an irregular, roughly heart-shaped outline on a black background.

Personal Grief

Death, illness, heartbreak,
endings, and the quiet
losses in between.

Grief Has Many Faces

Loss takes many forms. You are not alone.

A gold and red emblem with a lion's face and floral details, representing strength and royalty.

Ancestral Grief

Migration, diaspora, family, stories, silence, and inherited wounds.

Golden outline of a moth on black background.

Ecological Grief

Species loss, climate disruption, disappearing landscapes.

Gold outline of a paw print with a heart shape in the center on a black background.

More-Than-Human Grief

Animals harmed by human systems. The grief of caring beyond our own species.

Five hands, each with different skin tones, stacked in a pile as a symbol of teamwork and unity.

Collective Grief

War, injustice, violence, systems that harm, and the world we lose together.


More To Explore

Essays that hold grief in its many forms.

A collection of open books and pages arranged on a flat surface, creating a textured background with various texts visible.




Gold outline of a large feather on a black background.

If You'd Like Something to Carry With You

Book cover titled 'Caverns of Grief: A Field Guide for the Tender and Transforming' by Michelle Carrera, featuring a black background with white illustrated nature elements, including trees, butterflies, and a waterfall.

Caverns of Grief is a field guide for the grieving. Part companion, part map, it explores grief through place, memory, ecology, and belonging, offering gentle practices for finding your footing when the ground beneath you has changed.

Walking Together

I believe grief belongs in community. While Grief and Liberation is primarily a writing and creative practice, I occasionally offer workshops, talks, grief support, and other forms of accompaniment when capacity allows.

If you're looking for guidance, have a project in mind, or simply feel called to reach out, I'd be glad to hear from you.

→Work With Me