Self Care for Celebrants

Running your own celebrancy business is both rewarding and demanding. As celebrants, we’re privileged to be part of life’s most meaningful moments—weddings full of joy, naming ceremonies brimming with hope, and funerals where we honour lives lived. Yet this work, especially for funeral celebrants, requires giving much of ourselves emotionally while maintaining professional composure.

Self-care isn’t a luxury for celebrants—it’s essential. When we support others through their most significant life events, we must protect our own wellbeing to continue offering our best service. This is particularly true for funeral celebrants, who regularly navigate grief while providing comfort to those in mourning.

Here are practical self-care strategies that celebrants can use:

1. Listen to a Feel Good Soundtrack

Music is an incredible way to shift our mood and mindset. Set up a feel good soundtrack that you can put on in your car after the ceremony. Pick songs you love. It might be worth having a couple of different soundtracks that you can match to your mood – one to calm and soothe you, and one to uplift and energise you.

2. Move Your Body

Physical movement can be transformative after a ceremony. Whether it’s a brisk walk in nature, a gentle stretch, or even a quick dance to your feel-good soundtrack, moving your body helps release tension and shifts your energy. Consider keeping trainers in your car so you can take a short walk between ceremonies or appointments.

Group exercise classes can be a great way to nurture community and move your body at the same time. Yoga is great for stretching and mindfulness, but don’t discount the power of Zumba or an outdoor circuits class or running club to get the feel-good endorphins flowing again.

3. Adopt a Breathwork Practice

Breathwork has been used for thousands of years to help people focus, centre themselves or create energy. There are many different techniques that can shift your state in seconds. The team at AMC are big fans. It’s quick, easy, free and can be done wherever you are!

If you’ve never tried it before, here are some quick and easy techniques to try:

I’m breathing in. I’m breathing out.
As you breathe in, silently tell yourself “I’m breathing in.” And as you breathe out silently say “I’m breathing out”. Repeat for 2-3 minutes, or longer if you prefer.

4 count box breathing
Box breathing helps calm and reset your nervous system, leaving you feeling centred and balanced. Simply follow a 4 count breath… in for 4, hold for the count of 4, breathe out for 4 and then hold for 4, repeat this for 1-3 minutes.

Brahmari Bee Breath/humming
If you practice yoga, you may have done this ‘pranayama’ or breathwork technique before. It involves making a humming sound like a bee while exhaling. Close your eyes, cup your hands lightly over your ears, and make a humming sound as you exhale slowly. When you get to the end of your breath, take a deep breath in and repeat for 3 or 4 long breaths. The vibration creates a calming effect, particularly helpful after an emotionally charged ceremony.

4. Journaling

A dedicated celebrant journal can be a powerful tool for processing emotions and experiences. After each ceremony, take a few minutes to write about what went well, any challenges you faced, and how you felt. This practice not only helps you process emotions but creates a valuable record of your growth as a celebrant.

Piggy-back your journalling with a short gratitude practice as described in practice 5, for maximum feel-good impact.

5. Gratitude Practices

Gratitude can counter the heaviness that sometimes comes with our work. According to research published by Berkley University, Gratitude is clinically proven to improve our mood. Each day, note three things you’re grateful for. This might be the privilege of hearing someone’s life story, witnessing a special moment, or receiving heartfelt thanks from a family you’ve supported, or just the flexibility Celebrancy brings to your life. Gratitude can also be for the things we often take for granted, waking up in a warm bed, having a hot cup or tea or coffee.

Consider writing a gratitude letter to say thanks to someone who’s helped you – according to the researchers, you don’t even need to send it to feel the benefits of this practice.

6. Take a Mindfulness Moment

A mindfulness moment helps you connect with your senses and grounds you in your body. It’s a technique therapists will recommend for people dealing with anxiety or overwhelm. Take brief moments throughout the day to connect with yourself:

• In this moment I see… – What can you see around you?
• In this moment I hear… What sounds do you hear?
• In this moment I smell… What can you smell?
• In this moment I taste… What can you taste?
• In this moment I feel/I can touch… What can you feel or touch? Even if it’s just the fabric of your clothes on your skin.

7. Use the 5-minute Rule

If you’ve ever read Hal Elrod’s best-selling book The Miracle Morning, you might be familiar with the 5-minute rule he uses to stop himself from dwelling on negative thoughts.

It’s simple: set a timer for 5 minutes, during which time you allow yourself to feel all your feelings fully – whether that’s grief, anger, despair, a sense of injustice etc. You can shout, rant, cry, but when the timer goes off at the end of your 5-minutes. You simply state – 3 words “Can’t change it” and commit to moving forward with positive action.

If it sounds like it won’t work in your circumstance, Hal used it when:

• He was hit head-on by a drunk driver and warned he would never walk again
• His publisher defrauded him of every penny of his first book’s sales
• He was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer and given only a 20-30% chance of survival.

You can hear Hal explain the technique on episode 411 of The 1000 hours outside podcast. Click here for apple podcast link. Spotify podcast link

8. Word Association to Stop Spiralling Thoughts

This is a brilliant tool for celebrants who find their minds racing after an emotional ceremony. When your mind is spiralling, think of a word – any word, let’s say Apples… Then you think of 5 words starting with each letter, A. P. P. L. E for example… A – could be Australia, Autonomous, Aspirational, Angry, Alphabet Then you go through each of the other letters, P, P, L and E, repeating the process.

This technique is great for refocusing your mind away from spiralling thoughts. For a bonus feel good boost (and if you really want to stretch your brain) you could theme your words to only think of things that make you happy or grateful.

8. Check in with Your Community

For funeral celebrants especially, processing grief alone can be isolating. Connect with your celebrant community through WhatsApp groups or Facebook communities. Mentor Helen Jubb has a Celebrant friend she messages after her ceremonies – often it’s just sharing a photo of their post-ceremony snack – but it’s good to have that grounding and support.

9. Create Clear Boundaries

Perhaps the most important self-care practice for celebrants is establishing clear boundaries. This might mean:

• Setting office hours and sticking to them
• Taking at least one full day off each week
• Limiting how many emotionally demanding ceremonies you conduct in a row
• Creating rituals to separate “work mode” from personal time (like changing clothes or having a shower)
• Signposting families to grief resources, support groups or charities, so you don’t end up taking on more than you should.

10. Perform a Random Act of Kindness

When we give of ourselves professionally, we sometimes need to replenish our emotional reserves. Performing a simple act of kindness—buying a coffee for the person behind you, leaving a thoughtful note for a colleague, surprising someone with a handwritten poem or bunch of flowers, or helping a neighbour—can create positive feelings that counterbalance emotional fatigue.

The Random Acts of Kindness foundation has tonnes of free resources and ideas for Random Acts of Kindness.

11. Have a Bath

Sometimes we just need to reset and rest. A relaxing bath can soothe both our body and mind. Try adding some essential oils – lavender to calm, rose geranium or chamomile to soothe, or sweet orange to uplift.

12. Seek Professional Support When Needed

Finally, remember that it’s perfectly normal to seek professional support occasionally. Therapy or supervision sessions can provide valuable space to process emotions that arise from your work, especially for funeral celebrants or those working in particularly challenging circumstances.

Remember, your ability to care for others as a celebrant depends on how well you care for yourself. By implementing these practices regularly, you’ll not only protect your wellbeing but also enhance the quality of service you provide to families and couples during their most meaningful moments.

AMC Students and graduates have access to our exclusive Facebook community, and for anyone that hasn’t trained with us you can still find lots of support and advice in our open Facebook group.