The Many Faces of Grief: Healing Change, Loss, and the Body Through Yoga and Yoga Puncture

Grief doesn’t always arrive dressed in black.

It comes quietly, often wrapped in change — in the endings we choose for our own peace, in the friendships that fade, or in the identities we outgrow.

It’s not only about death.

It’s about life — and the spaces that open when we let go of what no longer fits.

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Grief Beyond Loss: My Personal Journey

When I chose to part ways with my family, I didn’t expect the grief to feel so deep.

I wasn’t mourning people I’d lost to death — I was grieving the idea of what I had always hoped family would be.

There was pain in accepting reality for what it was, instead of what I longed for it to be. I grieved the love and safety I wanted but never truly had. And though it was the healthiest decision for my wellbeing, it still left a space — a deep ache where dreams used to live.

Later, I felt a similar ache when I moved away from friendships that had been my chosen family. Those connections had shaped me, held me, and defined my sense of belonging. When I stepped away, the grief didn’t come in tears at first — it came in my sleep.

For almost two years, I dreamt of those friendships, revisiting them night after night. My body and mind were still trying to process what my heart already knew: that letting go was necessary, but it still hurt.

When i left my corporate career, a place that had been my coping mechanism through many of life's challenges- it was my constant, and that constant was grounding for me. So when i chose to leave, again because it was no longer aiding my well-being, i felt a little lost afterwards. I grieved the future and career that i thought i would have, i grieved the person i was at the height of working in corporate, i grieved my colleagues and I grieved the comfort + routine that it gave me. So as you can see, my experience with grief haas never been through losing somebody i love to death, but more change. What i thought or wished would be, while moving into an accepting phase of what is.

Grief Has Many Faces

I thik think it is important to understand tha grief wears many forms — and each one touches the body differently.

1.⁠ ⁠Grief of What Never Was

Like the grief I felt for the family I wished I had. It’s the mourning of unmet needs, lost potential, or love that never felt safe.

2.⁠ ⁠Grief of Change

When we step into a new chapter — even a better one — we grieve the identity, people, or comfort we leave behind.

Yoga often calls this “the space between what was and what’s becoming.”

3.⁠ ⁠Grief of Friendship

When friendships shift or end, it can feel like a silent loss. There’s no ritual, no farewell. Just an emptiness where connection once lived.

4.⁠ ⁠Complicated or Delayed Grief

Sometimes grief doesn’t surface right away. It waits until we’re still — until the nervous system softens enough for the emotion to rise. That’s often when the body speaks — through headaches, fatigue, or even sinus pressure.

When Grief Lives in the Body

Grief doesn’t just sit in the heart — it takes up residence in the body.

• Crying can lead to sinus pressure or that heavy, foggy feeling behind the eyes.

• Suppressed emotion can tighten the jaw, neck, and shoulders.

• Unprocessed grief can weaken the immune system, leading to inflammation or chronic tension.

For me, grief often felt like congestion — as if my face and chest were holding back something that wanted to be released.

The body remembers what the mind tries to move past. And remember, the mind is very clever in trying to protect us from feeling the pain. Which is why it can come in waves, our bodies opening up the grief little by little, in small , often painful amounts for us to process and feel in stages. This is normal.

When we give it movement, breath, and stillness — that’s when it begins to let go.

How Yoga and Yoga Puncture Support the Process

Yoga has been my greatest companion through grief.

On the mat, I’ve learned that release doesn’t come from forcing emotion out — it comes from making space for it to move through.

• In heart-openers, I’ve felt the ache soften into breath.

• In forward folds, I’ve allowed tears to fall quietly, letting gravity take what I no longer needed.

• In stillness, I’ve discovered that healing isn’t linear — it’s cyclical.

When a student was discussing sinus issues, i looked into the wider, more woo woo, less physiological reasoning for it. It was the perfect theme for our next Yoga Puncture event — a practice where movement meets energetic healing.

Through guided yoga, breathwork, and acupuncture-inspired energy points, Yoga Puncture invites both the physical and emotional body to release.

It helps clear the heaviness we carry in our face, neck, and sinuses — the same places grief tends to live — and replaces it with lightness, clarity, and calm.

When Grief Sneaks Back

Even after years of inner work, grief still visits me sometimes. It sneaks up in a song, a dream, or a familiar smell. This ties in with my previous blog, and the waves of healing we go through.

But I’ve learned something important:

When grief reappears, it doesn’t mean I’ve gone backward. It means another layer is ready to be released.

Allowing yourself to feel — even when it’s painful — isn’t regression. It’s renewal.

Each time you let the emotion rise and fall, you build a deeper relationship with yourself. You become softer, stronger, more alive.

The Power of Allowing

Grief is movement.

When we let it come and go — like waves on the breath — we discover that it doesn’t drown us. It cleanses us.

In the safe space of Yoga and our upcoming Yoga Puncture event, we honor that movement.

We breathe. We move. We rest.

We allow what’s been held — in the heart, the fascia, the sinuses — to finally find release.

Because healing doesn’t mean we stop grieving.

It means we learn to grieve with openness, with breath, and with grace.

Upcoming Yoga-Puncture event

Sunday 23rd Nov 4pm - 6:30pm

If you’re navigating change, loss, or the quiet ache of becoming someone new, this practice is for you.

It’s not about “getting over it.”

It’s about coming home — to your body, your breath, and your truth.

Let’s move through grief together — one breath, one posture, one release at a time. What we free up in our bodies, makes space for all the wonderful things that help us become who we are meant to be.

YOGAPUNCTURE EVENT - SINUS AND GRIEF