Meditation For Grief & Loss [With Script]

Losing my father was one of the most painful moments of my life. My father was 65, and his passing was sudden and heart-wrenching. When my mother called to tell me he had passed, I felt devastated. The healing process after my father’s death felt impossibly long. And meditation helped — but not in the way I expected. Some days it gave me space. Other days it brought emotions up that I didn’t know how to sit with.

As a meditation teacher, I have long valued mindfulness, but grief-meditation became a personal anchor during loss.

Meditation did not take away the sorrow, but it gave me space to feel my emotions and breathe through the pain.

In this article, I will show how grief meditation can support healing after the death of a loved one. But I will be honest, the journey is a challenging one and it is best if you can work with someone to help you through. 

How To Use Meditation For Grief

Meditation isn’t about escaping your grief; it’s about creating a safe space where you can feel, process, and eventually heal. Studies from National Taipei University of Education [1] confirm that meditation can soothe the intense emotional and physical pain of loss. And as Thich Nhat Hanh beautifully reminds us, “We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.” 

Meditating with grief, however, is not easy. It can feel overwhelming. Even as someone with decades of experience, I found that sitting alone with grief sometimes intensified it rather than soothed it. That’s why having guidance—someone to truly connect with and walk alongside you—can make all the difference. Private meditation lessons, for instance, offer more than just techniques; they create a supportive space tailored to your unique needs, fostering a healing connection between teacher and student. Meditation gives space — but when you’re grieving, space can feel empty without support.

Try the meditations below, and if you would like extra help, reaching out to me.

Guided Meditation For Grief

I’ve also found it helpful using the following grief meditation scripts for sadness and letting go. If you are new to meditation, start by reading my beginners guide to meditation.

And do not worry if you cry.

Grief Meditation Scripts

1: Breathing meditation  

For me, when I’m working with those facing grief, I’ll start with a simple breathing meditation, but modified based on the students needs.

When you face loss, your mind becomes stagnant as you hold on to the past. To let go, meditate on the breath. I find that this calms the mind and helps release emotions associated with grief, as well as helping us to forgive.

The following is one example, based on Anapanasati, Vipassana, and mindfulness. It will help you to move forward in a positive way, as it helped me when my father passed.

1. Sit comfortably with good posture. For most people, the best position is simply sitting in a comfortable chair. Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Make sure your knees are directly above your ankles. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed across your sitting bones. Sit up straight but with a relaxed spine. Roll your shoulders then let them relax. Move your head from side to side then relax. Gently tuck your chin down a little.
2. We want to use Dhyana mudra. To do this, place one hand in another with the palms facing upwards (so you are cupping your hands). Allow the pads of your thumbs to touch each other. Place your hands in your lap, palms up. Keep your hands here.
3. I find it useful to use a mantra. My favourite mantra for grief is “I am moving forward with love.” (This varies based on the student I’m working with. If you lose your way in this meditation (which is possible because of the emotions), remind yourself why you are meditating, and recite this mantra to yourself.
4. Close your eyes and breathe. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Watch your breath moving in through your nostrils, down your throat, into your lungs and your diaphragm. Continue to watch your breath.
5. You want to focus 100% of your mind on your breath, and thereby reconnect with the present moment. However, this is going to be challenging because you have been through a traumatic experience. Inevitably there will be times when you experience painful emotions. I cried the first time (which is absolutely fine—let it happen). I also experienced painful thoughts. Again, that’s normal because of bereavement. Simply observe these thoughts and feelings and return to focusing on the breath. Aim for 108 mindful breaths. And if at any point this feels like too much, that doesn’t mean you’re failing — it means you’re touching something that may be easier to hold with someone sitting with you, like a meditation teacher.
6. When I lose focus I remind myself of my aim. I am finding inner peace and moving forward in a loving way. And I speak the grief mantra when I need to (“I am moving forward with love”).
7. If you struggle to focus, do not be hard on yourself. Meditating at emotional times is a challenge. It’s a lot harder than meditating when everything is fine. Go easy on yourself.

2: Candle meditation

Get a candle that is almost out of wax and meditate as the candle dies out. Here’s how:

1. Get a candle that is almost out of wax Make sure there’s enough wax to last for around twenty minutes.
2. Now go to a dark room and tell yourself that you will spend the next twenty minutes meditating on the candle and that when the candle dies, you will be set free from the past.
3. Focus your gaze on the candle.
4. Repeat the mantra “With this flame, I release you” (referring to the thing you are holding on to)
5. Meditate on the candle until it is out.
6. Say, “It is done.”
7. Visualise letting go and moving on.
8. Express gratitude for this meditation.

For some people this creates peace. For others it brings up deeper emotions that are hard to sit with alone. Again, doing this method with a coach like me will make it much more comfortable. 

3: Taoist meditations

Taoist meditations are all about acceptance.

Often when we try to move on we feel pent up anger or resentment. When my father died, part of me was angry at him because he died unnecessarily from years of alcoholism. But that anger doesn’t help. My father deserves to be remembered in a loving way, and I deserve peace. And it is the same for you.

Taoist meditation can help soften negative feelings — though many people find acceptance comes more easily when they are not navigating grief in isolation.

One of the best meditations for this is Zuowang, which is simply meditating on nothingness. Find a quiet spot and meditate on the sound of silence.

4: Guided Meditation 2

5: Mindful Funeral Ritual & Scattering Ashes

Rituals like funerals and “celebrations of life” help us to relieve grief. And science proves this.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology published research on the psychological effects of rituals. Researchers looked at religious ceremonies and informal rituals and observed how these services helped with bereavement. 76 university students were asked to write about a time of loss and how they coped. All the cases of loss were either from death or the breakup of a relationship.

Researchers then asked participants to describe the rituals they performed. The reports showed that most rituals were private. Only 10% were public and 5% religious. The ceremonies included things like playing the favourite song of someone lost, and writing letters expressing how we feel. Researchers looked at how these rituals affected 247 participants, and half the group were asked to write about how they felt.

The results show that:

• Rituals help us to feel more control after bereavement.
• It doesn’t make a difference what kind of ritual you perform.
• Rituals help us to deal with feelings of loss.
• Writing about the rituals afterwards helps us to feel more control over our loss.

Decide on a personal ritual that you can use to show love to the deceased (or the end of the relationship) and perform it. I will not give precise instructions because I believe that rituals should be private and personal. However, I am happy to advise my students in my lessons on how they might proceed, once we have discussed it. 

6:  Script 2

This grief-meditation script will help you to release emotion in a positive way while honouring the person (or relationship) you are releasing. You will need a personal object from the individual you’ve lost. It must be an object you are willing to release (literally).

1. Sit in the garden (or indoors somewhere quiet and peaceful) with a meaningful object from the person or from the relationship. The absolute perfect spot for this is by water.
2. Close your eyes and focus on your breath for 15 breaths.
3. Bring the person to mind (if it’s a romantic relationship, bring to mind the two of you together).
4. See the person (or the relationship) in a happy moment. Meditate on this happy moment for fifteen breaths.
5. Imagine saying anything you need to say to them. “I love you.” “Thank you.” And, “I am sorry for…” Take twenty-five breaths to do this.
6. Imagine hearing them saying what you need to hear. “I forgive you.” And “I am still with you”. Take twenty-five breaths to do this.
7. Feel them with you as you take another ten breaths.
8. Say that it is time to move on, but that you are moving on with love and gratitude.
9. Let go of the personal object. If you are by water, release it into the water.
10. Say “I release you.”
11. Express gratitude for this meditation.

This can be deeply moving — and sometimes unexpectedly intense.

7: Private Meditation Lessons

Practices like these can be meaningful. But grief is unpredictable — and many people find that having someone calm and steady with them changes the entire experience.

What Helped Me Let Go

When I was deep in grief, the last thing I wanted was to “move on.” But sitting with my breath—just that—gave me a way through. I wasn’t trying to forget. I was learning to be here again.

Letting go didn’t mean erasing what I lost. It meant loosening the grip.

Meditation can help you set grief down — but you don’t always have to do that alone.
Sometimes healing begins not just with the breath but with someone gently holding space while you find it again. Reach out to me and let’s work together. 

Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison is a meditation teacher with 25 years of experience and a deep passion for helping others. Known for his empathy and authentic approach, he’s dedicated to guiding individuals and teams toward mindfulness, clarity, and well-being.