Scavenger hunts are fun. Grief is not. So it’s probably weird to even hear “grief scavenger hunt”. 

As hard as it is – honestly some days literally impossible – playing an active role in grief is how you start the healing process. It’s not easy. No one gets their grief manual upon entry as a way to know how to get through this. Much of it is finding your way in the darkness. 

This scavenger hunt worksheet is a tool. It’s not meant to be gone through in a weekend or a week, but over time. These are small milestones and things to notice or work towards that might help give grief some motion.

The Sensory Hunt

Pets engage so much of your senses. Well, taste might be debatable. You see them, hear them, touch them and smell them. Senses are flooded daily with all parts of them. It’s one of the elements of grief that can be so disorienting. The loss of such comforting, reliable and loving sensory input is a kind of micro loss. 

Exploring other sensory experiences that bring you comfort is a crucial aspect of actively giving and living. The Sensory Hunt is meant to actively engage your senses. What brings you even a small sense of comfort?

While it may not feel as fulfilling as having your pet here to effortlessly do this, it still matters. In the numbness of grief, these types of experiences help your brain register that your senses are still actually functioning.

The Healing Hunt

Being open to healing and setting an intention that you want to, even if you don’t know how, is a pivotal part of grieving. This part of the grief scavenger hunt is about nurturing emotional recovery and fostering growth after experiencing loss. Here is where the work of rediscovering life and love in new ways begins.

Knowing what love and connection look like when someone isn’t physically here, can be a struggle. Also, recapturing a sense of self identity in the wake of pet loss grief is something that takes work. The Healing Hunt helps find peace in memories and acknowledges growth.

The Discovery Hunt

Confronting grief with courage and curiosity is the goal in The Discovery Hunt. This is an effort to slowly rebuild and discover who you’re becoming and what grief is teaching you (cause it does that).

Discovery in grief (not just in this scavenger hunt) may uncover profound growth and reassess what’s truly important in this chapter of your life. Maybe this is part of the path to “finding meaning”.

When you start to understand what helps you navigate the depths of grief, a sense of control starts to resurface and the powerlessness that grief brought along can begin to fade. 

In the adventure of a grief scavenger hunt, intention meets compassion with a bit of courage, humor, and a lot of love.