Resources
This page offers a collection of helpful poems, supportive writings, and trusted links for anyone seeking encouragement and mental health healing. Whether you are looking for words of comfort or practical resources, you will find guidance here to remind you that you are not alone.
Poems
Poetry can be a portal into our deeper Selves. It allows us to touch and process our grief when we don’t quite have the words or ways to express it yet. Enjoy this selection of poems that I have found to be most meaningful to those bereft with unspeakable pain. If you have other poems you want to suggest I add, please let me know!
"Heavy" by Mary Oliver
That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying
I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had his hand in this,
as well as friends.
Still, I was bent,
and my laughter,
as the poet said,
was nowhere to be found.
Then said my friend Daniel,
(brave even among lions),
“It’s not the weight you carry
but how you carry it–
books, bricks, grief–
it’s all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it
when you cannot, and would not,
put it down.”
So I went practicing.
Have you noticed?
Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?
How I linger
to admire, admire, admire
the things of this world
that are kind, and maybe
also troubled –
roses in the wind,
the sea geese on the steep waves,
a love
to which there is no reply?
"Let This Darkness be a Bell Tower" by Rilke
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29
"Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Isn’t Breaking" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
On Earth, just a teaspoon of neutron star
would weigh six billion tons. Six billion tons
equals the collective weight of every animal
on earth. Including the insects. Times three.
Six billion tons sounds impossible
until I consider how it is to swallow grief—
just a teaspoon and one might as well have consumed
a neutron star. How dense it is,
how it carries inside it the memory of collapse.
How difficult it is to move then.
How impossible to believe that anything
could lift that weight.
There are many reasons to treat each other
with great tenderness. One is
the sheer miracle that we are here together
on a planet surrounded by dying stars.
One is that we cannot see what
anyone else has swallowed.
"The Journey" by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
"The Guest House" by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond
Articles and Studies
“Understanding Spirituality and Mental Health”
Spirituality is often a steady anchor in times of crisis, uncertainty, or personal struggle. It nurtures inner peace, offers a sense of connection to something greater, and can ease the weight of daily stress when practiced with intention…
“Spirituality, religion, and mood disorders”
There is robust evidence that spirituality and religion (S/R) often predict the severity and course of mood disorder symptoms, particularly depression. Effects of S/R on depression are usually positive (i.e. higher levels of S/R are typically associated with lower levels and better recovery from depressive symptoms)…
“The role of Spirituality in Health Care”
The technological advances of the past century tended to change the focus of medicine from a caring, service oriented model to a technological, cure-oriented model. Technology has led to phenomenal advances in medicine and has given us the ability to prolong life…
"How Spirituality Affects Mental Health"
The idea of spirituality means different things for different people. The variety of spiritual beliefs and customs are as varied as the people who practice them. One thing they all have in common is the range of effects they can have on our mental health…
“What is a Chaplain?”
A chaplain is, traditionally, a Christian cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence agency, embassy, school, labor union, business, police department, fire department, university, sports club), or a private chapel…
“Spiritual Interventions…a Systematic Review”
Spiritual care is a growing field of health care and has been associated with various health outcomes. Multiple studies have documented the benefits of spiritual interventions, including reduced anxiety and depression, enhanced well-being, improved life satisfaction, increased quality of life, and reduced spiritual distress for patients near death…
“Spirituality and Its Contribution to Mental Health”
Spirituality has become a topic of much interest in recent times in the scientific community. This includes the convergence of advances related to the role of spirituality in self-help groups, health psychology, psychiatry, and consciousness research…
