Embrace Healing with Intention: Mindfulness Practices to Rebuild After Tragedy

By Melissa Hull

When tragedy strikes, it often feels like the ground beneath your feet has disappeared. Life as you knew it is shattered, and the simple act of breathing can feel like climbing a mountain. In those moments, healing can seem impossible—something reserved for others, but out of reach for you.

I know that feeling well. After the loss of my son Drew, I spent months in a fog of grief, barely surviving. Each day felt like an endurance test, with no relief in sight. What eventually began to shift my world wasn’t a dramatic revelation or sudden miracle. It was intention. It was choosing, one small act at a time, to create space for healing.

That choice led me to mindfulness—not as a trendy practice, but as a lifeline. Mindfulness became the compass that helped me navigate the uncharted terrain of grief and begin to rebuild my life with intention.

The Power of Intention

When we’re grieving, it’s easy to fall into survival mode. Days blur together, and we move through life on autopilot, doing only what’s necessary to get by. But healing requires something more. It requires intention—the deliberate choice to show up for yourself, even in the smallest of ways.

For me, intention looked like setting aside five minutes each morning to breathe deeply before the chaos of the day began. It looked like lighting a candle in Drew’s memory, reminding myself that love was still present even in his absence. It looked like asking myself simple but powerful questions: What do I need today? How can I honor my grief while also nurturing my healing?

Intention doesn’t erase the pain. But it creates a container where healing can begin to grow.

Mindfulness as a Healing Practice

Mindfulness is the practice of being present—fully aware of what’s happening in your body, mind, and spirit without judgment. For those who are grieving, this can feel daunting. Who wants to sit with pain? But paradoxically, mindfulness is what allows the pain to soften, because it invites us to meet our grief with compassion instead of resistance.

I began by simply noticing. Noticing my breath. Noticing the waves of sadness without trying to push them away. Noticing when a memory brought both tears and a smile. With each act of noticing, I created space between myself and my grief. I was not my grief; I was the witness to it.

That shift was profound. It meant I could carry grief without being consumed by it.

Practical Mindfulness Practices for Rebuilding

If you’re wondering how to begin, here are some mindfulness practices that supported me in rebuilding after loss:

- Breath Awareness: Set a timer for five minutes and focus on your breath. Inhale deeply, exhale slowly. When your mind wanders, gently return to the rhythm of breathing. This anchors you in the present moment.
- Body Scan: Lie down or sit comfortably and bring awareness to each part of your body, from head to toe. Notice sensations without judgment. This helps release tension that grief often traps in the body.
- Gratitude Journaling: Each evening, write down three things you are grateful for, no matter how small. Gratitude doesn’t deny grief—it balances it by highlighting what remains.
- Mindful Walking: Take a short walk outside, paying attention to the sights, sounds, and sensations around you. Let nature remind you that life continues to move and renew itself.
- Loving-Kindness Meditation: Silently repeat phrases like, “May I be safe. May I be strong. May I find peace.” Extend these wishes to others, including your loved one who has passed. This practice cultivates compassion, even in heartbreak.

Rebuilding Through Small Steps

One of the greatest misconceptions about healing is that it happens in big leaps. In my experience, it happens in small, intentional steps. Healing through mindfulness isn’t about erasing grief—it’s about building the capacity to hold grief and still create space for joy, peace, and purpose.

Some days, mindfulness simply meant sitting with my coffee in silence, allowing myself to breathe without rushing. Other days, it meant writing in my journal until I felt the tightness in my chest begin to ease. These weren’t grand gestures, but they were acts of reclaiming my life, one moment at a time.

Over time, these practices became the foundation for rebuilding—not back to who I was, but forward into who I was becoming.

Why Intention Matters

Without intention, it’s easy to remain stuck in the cycle of grief, waiting for time alone to do the work. But time doesn’t heal—what we do with that time does.

Intention transforms grief from a passive experience into an active journey. It says: I may not have chosen this loss, but I can choose how I live with it. I can choose to honor my loved one by living fully. I can choose to meet my pain with compassion instead of despair.

That choice, made again and again, is where healing begins.

The Promise of Mindful Healing

Today, I don’t claim to be “finished” with grief. There is no finish line. Drew’s absence will always be part of me. But through intention and mindfulness, I have learned to coexist with that absence while also embracing presence, joy, and purpose.

Grief and healing live side by side in me. And I’ve discovered that this coexistence isn’t a contradiction—it’s the essence of resilience.

To anyone facing tragedy right now, I want you to know this: healing is possible. Not because you will one day stop grieving, but because you can learn to carry your grief differently. Through intention, through mindfulness, through the small daily choices that honor both your loss and your life, you can rebuild.

You can breathe again. You can love again. You can live again.

About Melissa Hull

Melissa Hull is a mother, best-selling author, international speaker, media host, master coach, and CEO. With her compassionate voice and transformative insights, she inspires audiences worldwide to navigate grief, healing, and personal growth.

Melissa’s journey began with unimaginable loss—the accidental drowning of her young son, Drew. This tragedy led her to confront the depths of grief and ultimately discover profound lessons about healing. Over two decades ago, Melissa chose to embrace healing as an intentional, ongoing process. She reimagined her son’s loss as a source of wisdom and transformed his absence into a guiding presence that continues to uplift her.

Through her experiences, Melissa discovered that grief doesn’t define us; the choices we make in its presence do. She encourages others to meet grief with courage, resilience, and love, showing that healing is possible and that love transcends physical existence.