Pinelawn Memorial Park & Arboretum Holds Healing Grief Workshop

Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum hosted a transformative grief healing workshop, “Your Body & Grief,” on January 23rd, 2024, in partnership with COPE, a nonprofit grief and healing organization. This complimentary workshop is part of Pinelawn's ongoing commitment to provide support and resources for those navigating the complexities of grief by offering effective tools to help individuals overcome the feeling of being isolated and overwhelmed.

Leading the workshop was Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki, a respected grief survivor and expert. Wendroff-Rawnicki taught individuals to redefine what grief means, create simple habits to restore the body’s vitality, bracket their emotions when in public, and break the cycle of spiraling thoughts. Drawing from his own personal healing journey and two decades of dedicated study in yoga, meditation, psychology, mindfulness, healthy lifestyle practices, and personal development, the workshop demonstrated how physical wellness can be the key to mental and emotional healing.

Jason shared a few tips with participants on how to combat negative thoughts and feelings:

• Scanning the body with the breath to understand where our emotions are physically held.

• Unlock the intra-cellular grief through simple movements.

• Vocalize and release of negative emotions such as anger and guilt.

• Inviting in positive feelings of love, calm, peace and joy.

Jason also taught participants how to assess their emotional, physical and mental wellbeing by using a pie chart:

• Create a pie chart with 3 equal sections.

• The first section will be labeled “Emotional” the second section will be labeled “Physical” and the third section will be labeled “Mental.”

• Assess how you feel in each category by rating it 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest.

• Fill in the sections of the pie chart based on those numbers.

• Now, assess the pie chart. If this were a wheel on a car, would it ride smoothly, or would it be an uncomfortable, bumpy ride?

• Address the areas that are out of balance so you can work on getting your “wheel” realigned.

"We understand that physical wellness can unlock the energy needed for the deeper mental and emotional work required in grief healing,” said Wendroff-Rawnicki. "This workshop is born from my healing journey as a bereaved sibling. My goal is to offer effective strategies and tools for individuals to cope with grief, focusing on both the physical and emotional aspects."

Justin Locke, President of Pinelawn Memorial Park, highlighted the importance of offering grief workshops. "We are proud to partner with COPE to help Pinelawn families work through the loneliness and emotional turmoil that often accompanies grief. It's our privilege to make these workshops available at no cost. We will continue to support our community to promote the emotional, mental, and physical health of grievers."

For details on the full range of Pinelawn's 2024 events, which are complimentary and open to everyone, please click here.