Coaching practices for Philosophy as a Way of Life After a Loss
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Philosophy as a Way of Life After a Loss, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Something I built my life around has ended
- I want their life to keep meaning something in the world, not just end
- Every conversation I have about anything that matters turns into each side trying to win, and I’m tired of it
- Everyone keeps telling me to move on and get over the loss, but the grief is huge and it won’t go
- I keep telling myself life really starts once I get through this next thing, and meanwhile I’m either replaying something I can’t change or bracing for something that hasn’t happened
Practices that may help
- Philosophy as a Way of Life
Pierre Hadot argued that ancient Greek and Roman philosophy — Stoic, Epicurean, Platonic — was not primarily a system of theories but a set of "spiritual exercises": repeated, structured practices for transforming how you perceive, judge, and live. The academic thesis is Hadot’s own and is well established in classical scholarship. The practices he describes overlap with studied mechanisms in mindfulness, CBT, and behavioral change — though that was not Hadot’s own claim. - Reframing loss as transformation
When something ends or is lost, practise asking what it is becoming rather than only mourning what it was.
Zhuangzi and the Practice of Perspective Shift - Carry forward the person’s legacy in your own life
Identify values, projects, or commitments the person cared about and carry them forward yourself.
Continuing Bonds in Grief, Made Practical - Philosophical dialogue as a practice
Use careful, good-faith conversation — not debate — to examine your assumptions together.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Treating grief as a form of gratitude
When something ends and you feel grief, recognise that the grief is proportional to the love — and let it be both.
Mono no Aware: The Pathos of Things - Return to the present as the only moment of action
Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus all return to the same point: you can only act now — stop deferring life.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Live what you study
Make your practice your philosophy — not a separate reading life and a separate daily life.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Look honestly for what has grown or changed for the better
Without minimising the loss, notice any growth, change, or perspective that has emerged from it.
Meaning Reconstruction in Grief, Made Practical - Map the assumptive world the loss disrupted
Identify which of your core beliefs about life, self, and the future the loss has challenged.
Meaning Reconstruction in Grief, Made Practical - Find meaning in unavoidable suffering
When suffering can’t be removed, the remaining task is the stance you take toward it.
Man’s Search for Meaning, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Essentialism After A Loss
Without minimising the loss, notice any growth, change, or perspective that has emerged from it.
Look honestly for what has grown or changed for the better
- Find Your Why After A Loss
Without minimising the loss, notice any growth, change, or perspective that has emerged from it.
- How To Move On From Losing A Loved One
When something ends and you feel grief, recognise that the grief is proportional to the love — and let it be both.
Treating grief as a form of gratitude
- The Examined Life After A Loss
Without minimising the loss, notice any growth, change, or perspective that has emerged from it.
- Theme Days After A Loss
Without minimising the loss, notice any growth, change, or perspective that has emerged from it.
- Who Am I After Loss
Actively develop the new self that emerges when a core relationship or role is gone.
Reconstruct your identity post-loss
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