Show Notes
In this episode, we explore Five Mins Out, a gentle five-minute practice for the days when grief waves hit hard and functioning feels impossible. If you woke up with heaviness on your chest or got ambushed by a wave out of nowhere, this short, doable episode meets you exactly where you are. Host Dylan guides you through a doorway, a window, a breath pattern, and one honest sentence, showing how small, contained moments of engagement help you meet grief without fighting it or drowning in it.
What You'll Learn: • Why feeling okay yesterday and wrecked today is not moving backwards • How the dual process model explains grief's natural oscillation between pain and living • Why crossing a physical threshold marks your day when everything blurs together • How slow breathing at six breaths per minute calms a braced nervous system • Why naming feelings out loud softens their intensity in the brain
Key Insights
• A longer exhale than inhale signals your body it can ease off high alert • Putting feelings into words quiets the brain's alarm system without suppressing grief • Small rituals restore a sense of agency on days that feel formless and out of control • Brief, deliberate engagement with grief helps it move; complete avoidance keeps it stuck • There is no way to fail at this practice, no grade, no score, no schedule
Recommended Resources:
• The Dougy Center (dougy.org) — grief support resources and peer groups for people mourning any kind of loss • GriefShare (griefshare.org) — find local grief recovery support groups and seminars near you • What's Your Grief (whatsyourgrief.com) — practical articles, courses, and podcasts on living with grief
Coming Up Next
Next time, we'll explore another small, doable practice designed for your hardest days—one that helps you carry grief through the ordinary moments without being consumed by them. If today's five minutes gave you even a small handle to hold, you won't want to miss it.
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