How do you ensure that great trauma (death in the family) does not reset your progress? I know habits will keep me sane, but they are hard to keep in grief.

Remember that each habit doesn’t need to be a big production. For example, if your habit is exercise, but you don’t have the emotional energy to do your usual workouts, you can do something small like 10 squats. Just enough to keep the consistency of doing some movement. For meditation, an alternative for difficult days with typical seated practices is to do a mindful walk. This can be done inside or outside and essentially consists of slowly walking around and either observing details in your surroundings or observing how your body moves as you walk. Wishing you well and sending lots of strength.