39 – Good Grief!

 Summary

1. There is no one way people feel loss, mourning, or grief.
2. Understand some of the symptoms of loss. You can feel everything from being unwell in your body to feeling emotionally unhealthy. It can take the face of anger or bitterness or anger empathy. Understand the emotions that are involved for you when you are feeling grief.
3. Understand there’s no timetable. There’s no structure for when you have to be over it. It can last days, weeks, months, depends on what it is, and it depends on how tough you’re feeling at that particular moment. Sometimes when something bad happens to us, and we’ve been in a great mood, we get over it quickly. Sometimes when we’re not, it takes a little bit longer
4. Make sure that you find a ritual to mark the end of whatever it is in this loss. If it’s the end of a job, or relationship, or a pandemic, make sure that you have a ritual to end it. Then take a nap, relax, connect with other people. Try new hobbies, habits, and events. Get together and connect with other people in your life or meet new people. Forgive the people around you for what went wrong.
5. Ensure that you keep yourself healthy by avoiding bad habits and things that have been addictions for you in the past, whether it’s drinking or video games. Adopt healthy habits. Make sure that you’re getting enough sleep, enough exercise, and that you’re eating right. Even if you didn’t do it before this event happened, start doing it now.
6. Look to your faith. Look to the faith of people around you, even if you don’t have a faith. Get some counseling to help you walk through the process of grief and to give you an outside perspective. Know when you need professional counseling, whether it’s someone inside of faith or a regular counselor, coach or psychologist, or psychiatrist

Links

• https://www.usurnsonline.com/grief-loss/mourning-a-death/
• https://www.wikihow.com/Mourn
• https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/04/learning-how-to-mourn-during-a-pandemic/