Mourning Breaks

12/19/2025

At Mourning Breaks, we know that grief does not take a holiday.

For that reason, I am pleased to offer a selection of grief counselling sessions throughout the holiday period, for those of you who might wish to have a little extra support as you are navigating this tender time. I know it’s not easy.

Current clients are invited to visit the Jane booking calendar to schedule appointments around the office closure dates noted above, as needed.

Please remember to be kind to yourself throughout the days ahead. There can be extraordinary pressures at this time of year and it’s so important to know that you are allowed to slow down, to reduce expectations and obligations, to say no where you feel the need.

Your mind, body, and spirit need gentleness right now.

Your grief needs witnessing, tending, and care.

Holding you in my thoughts, as always,

Cheryl 💛

Image:©️CWituik - Medway Valley NOV2025

12/19/2025

Make room for grief. 💛🕊️

12/14/2025

There is a lot of heaviness, distress, confusion, pain, rage and sorrow in the news today.😢

Slow down.

Breathe.

Tend to your heart, your mind, body, and spirit. Turn toward the strategies you’ve learned to navigate hard days, use them now.

Stay aware, absolutely, but consider limiting exposure. When you’re already navigating grief, your resources and capacity are reduced. You’re allowed to preserve your energy. Give yourself permission to take a step back, for now.

Remember to look for the glimmers.
And remind yourself that micro joys are how we survive macro grief.

Always.

Take care, friends xo 💛💔

12/13/2025

🕯️🕊️

Join Lumara for our Pregnancy and Infant Loss Candlelighting Gathering on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 4:30 PM PST / 7:30 PM EST / 8:30 PM AST as we gather with music, poems, and the reading of names. RSVP by December 19
https://lumarasociety.org/program/pregnancy-and-infant-loss-candlelighting-gathering/

12/13/2025

🕯️🕊️

This Sunday evening, bereaved parents, adult siblings and grandparents are warmly invited to join our online Worldwide Candle Lighting.

Find information and booking here: tcf.org.uk/events/969

12/09/2025

Peace tonight to feelings
that overwhelm. Sorrow, frustration
disappointment, anger, fear

Feelings that cannot find release
& lodge instead
in your stomach, head,
knotted muscles in your
back, shoulders, neck

Peace, oh peace, to your
brave heart & your
beloved, tired body

Peace 🕊

Benediction ©️Jessica Kantrowitz
Photo ©️CWituik

12/07/2025

Grief During the Holidays: Establishing New Traditions

Find tips for coping with grief during the holidays and creating new traditions to honor the memory of your loved one while finding moments of holiday joy.

12/07/2025

Grief needs to be acknowledged, witnessed, tended, and held with gentle compassion.💛

Throughout this month, I’ll continue to share supportive webinars, articles, groups and events that you might wish to read, attend or participate in to give yourself the gift of care as you navigate this season.

Go gently. Honour your needs. Love yourself through.

(*A important reminder that we are all unique individuals with differing support needs. I invite you to review and select the offerings that resonate, that feel the most aligned and supportive to you!) 🥰

And just a few days, empathy’s In Good Company virtual event! ❄️🎬

On December 11th at 1 PM ET, empsthy’s Co-Founder & CTO, Yonatan Bergman will host a powerful conversation with David Kessler, FACHE, our Chief Empathy Officer and world-renowned grief expert, and Dr. Becky Kennedy, bestselling author and clinical psychologist. Together, they’ll explore how we can navigate the emotional weight of the holiday season and create space for compassion and connection– at home, at work, and beyond.

Save your spot here: https://empthy.co/483nz34

12/06/2025

🤍💜

On December 6, 1989, 14 young women were murdered at Polytechnique Montréal because they were women.

Today, we honour their memory and reflect on the continued need to end gender-based violence.

On this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, we are called to come together and act.

How to honour the victims on December 6:
- Wear a white ribbon
- Observe a moment of silence
- Attend a local vigil
- Share awareness posts

Let’s commit to ending gender-based violence together.

To read Minister Valdez's statement on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, visit: https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/news/2025/12/statement-by-minister-rechie-valdez-on-the-national-day-of-remembrance-and-action-on-violence-against-women.html

12/06/2025

Love this supportive offering from Birth Mark (a registered charity advancing reproductive justice and perinatal equity in the GTHA) 🌈🏳️‍⚧️

New Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario funded workshop series! For 2SLGBTQ+ community members navigating grief or loss in their family-building journey, "Here, Hold My Grief" offers supportive, artist-guided workshops in Toronto, ON (Jan–Apr 2026). Learn more: info@familybuildingcanada.com.

12/05/2025

The existential balm of seeing yourself as a verb, not a noun - by Eric Jannazzo, Psyche Magazine

This is a fascinating essay.
Weekend reading for you. 💛

“If I wasn’t a fixed, knowable self, then I hadn’t failed to be one. And if I was an event in motion – like a breeze, or a flame, or a wave – then I didn’t need to locate myself. I could start to imagine my personhood not as a thing but as a roiling together of body and breath, memory and mood, ceaselessly shifting thoughts and perceptions, all braiding with the rest of the world in a pattern that could never be repeated.”

In the therapy room, I’ve seen how rethinking what we are – and what it means to ‘be dead’ – can lighten our fears

12/02/2025

“As we enter the deep of winter, may we remember that darkness has its own kind of beauty, its own kind of truth.”