Grieving the loss of a loved one is an incredibly painful, melancholy process. Grief is uncomfortable, and we often try to skirt around it by pushing our feelings away and moving on with our lives. Who wants to spend weeks and months feeling sad? It’s easier to try to forget the loss and keep moving forward.
Embrace Your Sadness
However, grief and sadness are emotions that can’t—and shouldn’t—be ignored. As much as we would like to get rid of these feelings, we must work through them to find healing. Pushing the difficulty of a loss away will only prolong the grieving process, but working through those emotions, acknowledging their existence, and opening ourselves up to them allows grief to become less painful.
After experiencing a difficult loss, many people's instinct is to run away from the situation and their feelings. Grief often feels like more than we can bear, and our fight-or-flight response tells us to get rid of those feelings as quickly as possible. However, the only way to truly find healing after a loss is to sit in the sadness and allow yourself to feel the loss of the person you loved deeply.
Grief will be painful and uncomfortable, and it’s important to accept that feelings of sadness and depression will overwhelm you in the first days and weeks after your loss. Allow yourself to be open to these emotions, acknowledging that they will not last forever but that they are true representations of your feelings.
Slow Down
Wanting to quickly return to your normal life after a loss is a common feling. Normal life is easy and painless, and without the time and care that was required by your loved one, you may feel inclined to return to a life free from the stress of illness. However, slowing down after a loss is necessary, and sometimes required, to allow our bodies and minds space to grieve. You may feel like you’re walking through a deep swamp of sorrow during a time of grief, and the most basic of tasks may seem too challenging to manage. It's okay to consciously slow down your life during your process of grief and accept the grief support of friends and loved ones to manage the tasks of each day.
Look Towards the Light
Your feelings of grief will not last forever. Over time, you will experience sadness in a less-severe way, and eventually, you will go days without experiencing those negative feelings at all. You will be able to live a happy, fulfilled life again, while still acknowledging the meaning your loved one brought to your life during the time that they were in it.
Throughout your period of grief, it’s necessary that you view the future in a hopeful light and understand that, in time, you will be okay.
Grief looks different for everyone, and sometimes it's too much to manage alone. Contact Hospice of the Golden Isles today at 912.265.4735 to receive grief support and resources to allow you to better process these difficult emotions.