Finding Ground After Loss: A Path Through Grief

When you lose someone you love, it can feel like the world has shifted. 

You find yourself in a new reality that feels strangely familiar, yet everything is different. The coffee may taste the same, but there is an unmistakable absence accompanied by a quiet ache for what once was.

Nobody tells you how tired you may feel or how daunting it can be to find your feet again. Navigating life without the person you love can feel isolating. You watch others carry on, laughing, enjoying the autumn sun, making plans for holidays, as if they can’t fully see the deep hole left behind. That hole may follow a prolonged period of care, illness, and the whirlwind of administration that comes with death announcements, wakes, and funerals.

Life can become quiet. It’s as if we have been forgotten.

Yet, it is in this quiet space that healing begins. This is the moment to compassionately turn toward the parts of ourselves that were neglected in the maelstrom of loss. By acknowledging our wounds, we uncover the fertile ground needed to rediscover what truly matters, how we want to live, and how we want to inhabit our world with meaning.

Life inevitably pulls us forward. So how can we find our feet on stable ground?

Everyone’s Path Through Grief Is Unique

The answer is different for each of us. It might mean surrounding ourselves with memories or, conversely, exploring new places and routines. It could involve creative expression through art or journaling, joining a support group, or spending time in nature. While grief is universal, the journey through it is deeply personal.

Support at The Sanctuary, Dublin 7

The Sanctuary, a meditation centre in Dublin 7, offers a range of supports for those navigating crisis and loss. From drop-in community wellbeing sessions to structured courses, their offerings are designed to ease the stresses of being human.

New Programme: When Things Fall Apart

Dr. Tony Bates and Jane Negrych will lead a new programme titled When Things Fall Apart: Finding a Way to Face a Life-Changing Crisis. This six-session course (four in-person, two online) explores how we survive and grow through moments of profound difficulty, when life feels turned upside down and the path ahead is unclear.

Whether the crisis is personal or involves someone we love, it can feel isolating and overwhelming. We may struggle to sustain hope. Yet this terrain of uncertainty is where life has brought us. It is the ground we now stand upon, the only real place where we can experience being alive.

The challenge is to make sense of what is happening so we can engage with it, rather than resist or deny it. We need a new map to guide us across this treacherous terrain.

What the Course Covers

Participants will be guided to:

• Identify what is keeping them from facing what feels terrifying
• Discover what may be holding them back or keeping them stuck
• Create conditions for being in the world in a new way
• Deal with isolation and despair caused by prolonged suffering
• Build a personal recovery blueprint with strategies for tough times
• Rebuild lost connections through art, music, nature, and relationships
• Reclaim a positive experience of being alive despite hardship
• Discover how facing challenges is a path to growth

Interested in learning more or signing up? Visit The Sanctuary Dublin for details on upcoming courses and supports.