We will all experience grief at some point in our lives, but how we move through grief is very specific to our own circumstances and emotions. There are several reasons why we encounter grief: Death of a loved one, including pets. Divorce or changes in a relationship, including friendships. Changes in own health or financial/career loss or of a loved one are all plausible reasons.
I thought it might be helpful to discuss how to create healthy goals while grieving. Sometimes taking these small steps towards healthful healing can offer comfort in a difficult time.
Finding Your Way Through Grief
Grief can be overwhelming, particularly when it stems from an unexpected loss. While you’re navigating your way through this difficult time, it’s important to take small steps toward helpful healing. In fact, grief can be a process of growth and transition in which new personal goals and aspirations emerge. Healthy Indian can be a touchstone for you in this process, providing insights into meditative and self-care practices designed to help you heal.
Navigate The Stages
Grief is complex. You can feel grief at the loss of a person, a marriage, or a personal and professional expectation that failed to materialize. While no two people grieve in the same way, there are well-established stages of grief that can help you recognize the normalcy of what you’re experiencing. These include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. Recognizing “what comes next” will help you identify when you’re making forward progress. This doesn’t mean you are no longer experiencing loss or feeling pain, but that you are on a healthy trajectory in dealing with what is a difficult and trying time.
Grieve With Others
Grief can feel isolating, so look for ways to spend time with friends and loved ones who are going through the same sense of loss, or with those who have the ability to be a comforting presence. Surround yourself with people who can lift you up with love and support and help you through this most difficult time. Express your grief, journal about your feelings, and play music or meditate in a way that allows you to channel your thoughts and energy in a healthy and healing way. While grief often involves looking back, make a conscious effort to give equal time to looking forward. You aren’t leaving anyone or anything behind – you’re simply moving.
Be Open to Light
Grief can feel like a cloak of darkness, so take active steps to bring more light into your life. Open windows and curtains, turn on lights, spend time in nature walking, hiking, or even sitting in silence. Or just step outside a few times a day to soak in the sun for brief periods of time. Keep a television or music on if you find silence overwhelming. These activities encourage you to remain among the living in a way that can feel comforting, but not overwhelming. Avoid isolating yourself, which can exacerbate grief and lead to a spiral of depression. Say yes to the offers of help, the company, and the visits. Write down, each day, something positive you can do moving forward.
Ask For Help
According to Mental Health America, while in many ways grief is a solo journey, it is something you can seek help in navigating. Reach out to your primary care provider and ask about a referral to a grief counselor or loss support group. When friends or family ask how they can help, give them tangible ways to provide assistance, whether that’s running errands, cooking a meal, caring for children, or simply sitting in silence with you as you process your feelings. Start talking about your plans for the future. Don’t allow yourself to feel guilt or regret that you are “leaving behind” what you’re grieving, but instead, focus on making yourself healthy and whole.
Chart A Path Forward
While there is no time limit on sadness, as you work your way through the stages of grief, you may find you experience epiphanies of how you would like to live your own life moving forward. Perhaps you want to return to school, embark on a new career, or even start your own business. There’s a lot of benefit in forming an LLC, or a limited liability company, as a starting point. An Oklahoma LLC gives you limited liability and a number of tax advantages, as well as flexibility and less paperwork. All states have different regulations around LLC formation, so learn about yours before moving ahead.
Be Okay with Being OK
As people emerge from the stages of grief and begin to move forward in their lives, they may find themselves shocked at the sound of their own laughter or lighthearted banter. It’s important to accept that you are alive and well and living your life. This in no way discounts the meaning or value of who or what you are grieving but is demonstrative of the power of the human spirit to heal itself, mind, body, and soul. As you start to emerge from your – and you will! – allow yourself to feel happiness.
Whether expected or unexpected, grief impacts us all in myriad ways. Some people experience complicated grief, which may require professional intervention. If you find yourself becoming despondent and or unable to cope, reach out to a trusted friend, physician, or in the case of a dire emergency, call 911.
Uplifting Articles on our Website
- Languishing: This Thing Called Blah
- Where Diamonds Fail
- Empty Nest Syndrome: You Are Not Alone
- Raising an Autistic Child: My Voyage of Endurance
- Hope Springs Eternal
- Sack Full of Breaths
Author Bio:
Camille created Bereaver after she went through the ups and downs of the bereavement process herself following the loss of her parents and husband. With the help of her friend who was also experiencing a loss of her own, she learned how to grieve the healthy way, and she wants to share that with others. There is no one way to grieve, but it is important to do it in a way that supports your physical and mental health throughout.
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