Grief On Purpose

In this moving conversation, Laura is joined by Rebecca Rau — a mother, business consultant, and yoga practitioner — to explore the raw intersections of grief, healing, and returning to oneself.

After the sudden death of her mother, a cross-state move, and an unexpected job loss all within two months, Rebecca found herself unraveling under the weight of unprocessed grief. What ultimately brought her back to herself wasn’t force or fixing — it was the quiet, persistent call of yoga.

Rebecca shares how grief lived in her body long before she recognized it in her mind, how the philosophies of yoga helped her hold the complexity of loss, and how returning to the mat became a way to reconnect with both her mother and her own life.

Together, Laura and Rebecca dive into:

Grief’s physical impact — and the body’s call for healing
Finding unexpected spiritual connection after loss
The language we choose when speaking about death and suicide
Redefining regret, and finding compassion for the parts of us that couldn't do more
The power of community, storytelling, and simply pausing in the middle of the mess
This episode is a reminder: healing isn’t linear, and sometimes the deepest return to life begins with a single, shaky breath.

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In this episode, Lauren Morse, a yoga instructor, death midwife, and research psychologist from Yellow Springs, Ohio, shares her profound journey of integrating yoga into her life as a tool for navigating grief. Lauren discusses her extensive experience of teaching yoga and her training in death midwifery, through which she developed a deep understanding of how grief manifests physically in the body. She emphasizes the importance of presence and surrender, recounting her personal battles with infertility and miscarriage, and how yoga helped her reconnect with her body and her self. Lauren also delves into her work as a death midwife, providing support and educating her community on planning for end-of-life arrangements and making the topics of death and grief less taboo. Her story is one of resilience, healing, and the transformative power of mindful practices.

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In this raw and unfiltered episode of Grief on Purpose, Laura trades perfection for presence after tech glitches and overwhelm derail her carefully laid plans. What was meant to be a structured exploration of Ahimsa becomes something more real: a reflection on how the Eight Limbs of Yoga live and breathe in moments of chaos, frustration, and vulnerability. From the inner voice that needs softening to the discipline of asking for help, she explores how principles like non-violence, truthfulness, contentment, and surrender become anchors when life unravels. This episode is a tender, grounded look at what it really means to practice yoga—off the mat and in the mess.

In this powerful episode, yoga instructor Christina Nystrom from Spiritually Fit shares the raw and layered story of navigating deep personal loss. After the deaths of her father, close friends, and her significant other, Christina turned to yoga not as a cure, but as a lifeline. Through principles like Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender) and Svadhyaya (Self-Study), she found a way to live with grief rather than fight against it. Christina opens up about what it means to carry such heavy grief, while still choosing presence, purpose, and connection—and how she now helps others do the same. This is a conversation about holding pain and possibility at the same time, and the quiet power of moving through grief on purpose.

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In this first solo episode of Grief On Purpose, Laura invites you into the transformative role yoga played in her own journey through grief—not as exercise, but as survival. Long before she became a therapist, she was a grieving human searching for something that could hold her pain without trying to fix it. Yoga did that.

Drawing from the ancient Yoga Sutras—specifically the teaching that yoga is defined as the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind—Laura explores how this practice became her most patient and powerful support. This solo season, woven alongside interviews and the writing of her book The Yoga of Grief, unpacks the eight limbs of yoga as tools for not only navigating death, but for meeting anxiety, disconnection, and the ordinary overwhelm of being human.

Whether you’re grieving a death, holding invisible pain, or simply longing for presence and grounding—this episode offers an invitation to return to yourself, one breath at a time.

In this powerful episode, Bridget Tremblay shares her profound personal journey through grief. She begins by recounting how her deep and enduring friendship with Laura began during a 2005 group interview for Lululemon. Bridget then details her role as the primary support person during the Laura’s intense grief after the death of her boyfriend. Bridget shares the emotional toll it took on her, the fear of losing their unique connection, and the invaluable lessons learned about holding space for someone's pain. Bridget also delves into her own grief experiences, including the death of a partner, health struggles, a divorce, and her miscarriages. Through these hardships, she found healing, growth, and a deeper understanding of herself. This episode is a testament to the complexities of supporting someone through grief while navigating one's own, and the profound impact that grieving with intention has on personal growth and resilience.

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Welcome to the first episode of Grief On Purpose – The Podcast! Host Laura sits down with Jessica Jurgens, who shares her journey through multiple losses and the many faces and experiences of grief. Jess shares the story of the death of her close friend at age 16, the death of her brother on 9/11, the death of her grandfather, and the death of a close adult friend. Jess reveals how she transformed her pain into purpose, using her experiences to serve and heal others. This raw, heartfelt conversation explores resilience, growth, and connection. Tune in for a powerful reminder that even in grief, we can find meaning.

Get full access to Grief On Purpose at griefonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe