This episode of The Smart Human Podcast features a comprehensive discussion with grief specialist and educator AmarAtma Singh Khalsa on the many forms of loss, the physical manifestation of grief, and tools for compassionate processing.
In this episode, they discuss why grief is not just an emotional response to death, but a comprehensive physical and mental experience that encompasses over 80 types of loss, including job changes, health shifts, and societal changes. AmarAtma explains why popular frameworks like the five stages of grief can cause unnecessary shame, and how modern culture's "emotion phobia" leads us to suppress pain rather than process it. Ultimately, they explore the somatic approach to healing, looking at the science behind heart rate variability, the 18-inch journey from the head to the heart, and practical breath, movement, and release techniques to help you integrate grief instead of trying to "get over it."
About Dr. AmarAtma Singh Khalsa
AmarAtma Singh Khalsa is a grief specialist, educator, and founder of the Institute for Compassionate Grieving. A Board Certified Chaplain, graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and practitioner with a Master’s degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, he developed the Compassionate Grieving Model, an embodied approach to loss that integrates science, spirituality, somatic healing, and compassionate care. For more than fifteen years, AmarAtma has supported thousands of individuals, families, healthcare professionals, and communities navigating grief and life’s many transitions. Through retreats, courses, speaking engagements, and a global online community of more than 240,000 people, he is helping to advance grief literacy and reshape the cultural conversation around loss. Author of The Tender Art of Grieving (Shambhala, September 2026), AmarAtma invites people to meet grief not as something to overcome, but as a profound expression of love, connection, and our shared humanity.
