Give Grief A Chance

Suicide, can leave those left behind with so many unanswered questions. It can leave people feeling guilty wondering if there were any signs that they missed. Unfortunately though, the majority of people turn to logic to try and deal with a totally emotional event.

At the beginning of the pandemic we all focused on securing our physical safety by staying home and shutting down schools and businesses . Now, after months of no in person connections, no sports, proms, or graduations, it has become a mental and emotional crisis for many young people.

This pandemic has created so much job loss, and for many, that loss can be one of life's most stressful experiences. Losing a job can bring about deep and complexed feelings of grief.

Losing your health can affect you on a daily basis and for many people, each day of living with an illness can be a constant reminder of loss. One of the greatest challenges that people face, is coming to terms with the loss and working through the grief that accompanies it. 

Replace the loss implies that everything is replaceable including human beings. However, this myth doesn't help anyone who has experienced a significant loss because, all relationships are unique and relationships cannot be replaced.

Keeping busy is such a bad piece of advice thats give out to grieving people. When your in the midst of your busyness, you might get distracted enough to forget your pain for a short while, but when the busyness ends.... back comes your grief.

Haven't we all heard someone say "time heals all wounds" or "just give it time." Unfortunately, those words are not true and it's a bad piece of advice to give a grieving person. Time does not heal and if those people try to bury their pain deep inside and never deal with it, sadly they may have trouble thriving socially. 

Grieving alone is quite a common thing for people to do, mainly because it's a learned behavior. People often feel like they don't want to burden others with their sad and painful feelings, and end up losing that natural desire to talk about their pain. It's sad to think that emotions associated with pain and distress are expected to be dealt with on your own. 

Now matter what someone you know is going through, telling them to stay strong is one of the worst things you can say as it implies that they are not permitted to grieve. Those two words are empty, no one has to try to act strong and put on a brave face, when all as they really want to do is breakdown and cry.

So many of us as children have been taught not to feel bad as crying is immature so it's better to hide that sadness, and many learn that showing emotions is a sign of weakness. When we learn how to understand them.... we learn how to grow. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to grief and loss many of us are filled with so much misinformation. Learning about myths can help someone during the grieving process. You never know what loss will bring for you, and sadly most of us are never prepared for it when it comes.

Values help to give you a sense of purpose and will help you to improve results in areas of your life that truly matter to you. The things that you believe are important in the way you live your life. Values affect your relationships, your, health, and your work. Whether you recognize them or not... values exist.

Right now, so many people are grieving. I believe that the amount of grief being experienced is totally beyond words, and unfortunately, the majority of us are socialized and educated to shy away from the topic of grief. People just need and want to be listened to and feel like their voice is being heard. 

With everything going on in our world right now, the importance of a good nights sleep seems to be flying under the radar. As most of us know, sleep is vital for our physical health, it's also a promoter of emotional wellness and mental health and it helps support our immune system.

After a loss of someone special, grievers are left with the painful task of sifting through and getting rid of their personal belongings. Often the hardest part is having to make a decision of what to keep, and what to let go of.

Setting healthy boundaries means thinking about your needs, and for many people that’s not an easy thing to do. Because so many of us have been taught that it’s important to put the needs of others before your own needs. That’s just not true!

We humans are social creatures and staying home with limited human contact can have a significant impact on our mental well-being and cause us to have feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behavior. Right now, so many of our familiar patterns have changed with all of the disruptions in normal routines of everyday life.

If your a caregiver or a parent, self-care tends to slide to the bottom of your list. However, it's important to know that taking care of yourself is not a luxury, it's essential. Learning how to cope with stress will make you and the people that you care about, much stronger. 

When we lose someone or something important to us its  a big adjustment. We have to learn how to live without that person, thing, or way of life, and everyone has to do what's right for them, and it takes courage during any of these challenging times.

We as human beings feel pain, whether that pain is emotional or physical, we all have experiences of being hurt at some point in our lives. What truly separates us, is how we each deal with it.   

No one is born a victim, but everyone gets injured, harmed, cheated or fooled during their life, if not physically then emotionally. You don't have to stay stuck and live your life feeling like a victim. You have the choice to change your story.

Working from home for some people often creates feelings of loneliness and isolation. Going to the supermarket and seeing empty shelves, can feel so deeply distressing. Everything that is happening in our world right now, can affect our mental health negatively. However, there are many effective ways to help manage your fears and anxiety.

Most people only associate grief with death, and yes, death certainly is a huge loss. However, there are many other life events that can produce feelings of sadness and grief, the Coronavirus is one of them.

Delayed grief... is just that. It's grief that you do not fully experience in the moment of your loss. This grief can show up weeks, months, even years, after you've experienced a loss, and it can hit you right out of the blue.