S7E01: Why Spirituality May Be a Missing Link In Your Grieving Process; Tips to Find a Holistic Balance

Grief affects every part of our lives — our emotions, our relationships, our bodies, and our sense of meaning. Yet one area is often overlooked in grief care: the spiritual self.

Whether or not you identify as religious, spirituality – where we connect with the earth, ourselves, and others – is the place where we ask life’s biggest questions. Why did this happen? What does this loss mean? Who am I now?

In this episode, we explore how grief often forces us to confront our beliefs about meaning, purpose, faith, doubt, and connection.

We Discuss:

• Why spirituality is often the “missing link” ignored in grief treatment.
• The concept of spiritual bypassing—using faith to avoid the pain of mourning.
• How grief can shake—or reshape—your worldview and faith.
• Finding a holistic balance: How to hold both psychological healing and spiritual exploration at the same time.
• Why grief requires embracing “both/and” instead of either/or 

For many people, healing from loss involves more than emotional processing. It involves rebuilding a worldview that has been shaken by death. Grief is messy. Faith questions can be messy too. But exploring them may be one of the most important parts of healing.

Timestamps:
(Transcript)

• 00:00 – Intro-Learn About the Link Between Sprituality and Healing from Grief
• 01:22 – Happy 6th Anniversary! We’re Venturing into Season 7
• 02:04 – To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
• 04:12 – Whanitta Sheetz’s Fried Ripe Tomato
• 05:35 – Spirituality: The Missing Link That Can Prevent Grievers from Moving Forward*
• 11:05 – Connecting to Spirituality through Nature: Sunlight and Tomatoes
• 20:24 – Gathas for the Practice of Mindful Living – Thich Nhat Hanh
• 28:48 – Outro-Every Day is a Gift

 *Content in this episode is shared with permission from WhatsYourGrief.com 

Spirituality and Grief – Finding the Balance

Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief

Our topic today was written as a guest post on whatsyourgrief.com by Kate J. Meyer, MDiv., LPC.

Kate is an ordained minister and licensed professional counselor working with bereaved clients in a hospice setting. She is the author of Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief, a book for Christian grievers to finally learn the truth of the both/and for healing, and the fiction novel The Red Couch. Both books are available at bookshop.org and wherever books are sold. You can follow Kate by subscribing to her website at katejmeyer.com and/or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

Sunlight, Tomatoes, and Spiritual Connection

In our first segment, we shared the story about the trend of favorite recipes engraved on headstones, and Rosie Grant, who collected many and put them into a cookbook. We’re featuring Whanitta’s fried ripe tomato recipe today, which fits well with our post-educational discussion about spirituality and grieving. Charlie found comfort in sunlight, groundedness in tending a friend’s vast garden, and simple joys in a home-grown tomato. Marianne often talks of her garden and the peace she finds there.

We finish with a lesson on mindfulness with Gathas – or hymns featured in Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training.

What about you? How do you balance your spirituality with psychological on your grief’s healing path?

References:

• Ten of My Favorite Cookbooks of 2025 | The New Yorker

Resources:

• Grant, Rosie. (2025). To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes. Available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/02O7Cp0m
• What’s Your Grief: wyg@whatsyourgrief.com
• Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training. Available here: https://a.co/d/0cfVA0OM GATHAS AND PRAYERS: Manual of Zen Buddhism: I. Gathas and Prayers | Internet Sacred Text Archive

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