As we approach the 8-year anniversary of the Institute of Professional Grief Coaching (IOPGC) in April, I am honored to introduce my newest book, Grief: The Heart's Workout Plan: 30 Days to Build Strength, Resilience, and Connection.

Grief is a journey no one asks to take, but one that transforms us in profound ways. Grief: The Heart's Workout Plan offers a compassionate, step-by-step guide to help you navigate the complexities of loss while discovering your inner resilience. Through daily reflections, actionable exercises, and heartfelt insights, this book serves as a companion for your heart—inviting you to honor your emotions, embrace self-compassion, and carry forward the love and lessons of those you’ve lost. Whether you’re at the beginning of your grief journey or somewhere along the way, each day is designed to gently strengthen your heart and renew your sense of purpose.

“Grief is not the weight that breaks us—it is the workout that strengthens our heart, teaching us to carry love forward with grace, resilience, and renewed purpose.”

Warm-Up: Preparing the Heart for the Journey

In the Warm-Up phase, you’ll ease into the experience of grief, learning to acknowledge its presence and complexity without judgment. Through gentle reflections and exercises, this phase helps you connect with your emotions and set the foundation for navigating loss with compassion and intention.

Strength Training: Building Resilience Through Reflection

The Strength Training phase focuses on cultivating emotional resilience by exploring grief’s many layers. You’ll name your pain, embrace your emotions, and uncover the strengths you carry within. This phase empowers you to meet grief’s challenges with courage and self-awareness.

Cardio for the Heart: Embracing Movement and Growth

In this dynamic phase, you’ll discover how to integrate joy, connection, and gratitude alongside grief. Through actionable steps and mindful practices, you’ll learn to navigate the duality of sorrow and joy, allowing love and hope to flow through the rhythm of your journey.

Recovery: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Meaning

The Recovery phase offers space for reflection and healing. Here, you’ll explore how to honor your loved one’s legacy, release guilt, and create rituals that foster peace. This phase helps you carry love forward, transforming grief into a source of enduring strength and purpose.

WISDOM NUGGETS BY DORA SERIES

 "Wisdom Nuggets By Dora" is a heartfelt series by Dora Carpenter, dedicated to providing compassionate insights on navigating life's most challenging moments, especially those related to grief and loss. Drawing on decades of experience as a grief coach, author, and mentor, this "Petite Pages Author" offers short yet powerful reflections that serve as guiding lights for anyone seeking comfort, understanding, and resilience. Through her unique blend of empathy, wisdom, and non-therapeutic practical advice, Dora helps readers transform their pain into purpose, finding strength and hope amid sorrow. Whether you're dealing with personal loss, supporting a grieving loved one, or simply searching for inspiration in difficult times, "Wisdom Nuggets By Dora" is your "pocket-sized" companion on the path to healing and growth.

Dora's Newest Wisdom Nuggets Releases

My Grief is My Grief

Please Don't Tell Me How to Grieve

Grief is not a formula. It’s not a timeline, a checklist, or a performance for the world to judge. It is deeply personal, unpredictable, and uniquely yours. Yet, from the moment loss enters your life, people begin telling you how to grieve. In My Grief is My Grief: Please Don’t Tell Me How to Grieve, you will find permission to grieve on your terms. This book is a declaration that no one else gets to dictate your process, pace, or emotions. Grief is messy, sacred, and yours alone. This book is here to remind you: You don’t need permission to grieve the way you need to grieve.

The Fabric of Grief

Weaving Resilience and Connection Through Collective Loss

This quick-read, pocket-size book is not just about loss—it is about rebuilding, reconnecting, and rediscovering hope. Whether you are facing the grief of personal loss, social change, or uncertainty about the future, The Fabric of Grief provides a compassionate space for reflection, resilience, and renewal. Grief is not an unraveling. It is the weaving of loss into the fabric of who we are. In its threads, we find resilience, connection, and the quiet strength to begin again.

Life is Fragile

Grief is the Love That Remains

Life is delicate—an unpredictable thread woven with love, loss, and the fleeting beauty of moments we too often take for granted. And when grief arrives, it shatters our world, leaving behind the weight of what was and the ache of what will never be. But grief is not just sorrow—it is love’s enduring echo, a testament to the depth of our connections. In Life is Fragile: Grief is the Love that Remains, you will be gently guided through the complexities of loss, exploring the pain, the longing, and the love that still lingers. Through heartfelt reflections and thought-provoking prompts, this book offers a companion for your grief journey.

Jack Canfield, best-selling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, interviews Dora Carpenter

The Humanity of Grief in the Workplace: The Small Business Manager's Guide to Compassionate Leadership