Shook. Fury. Guilt. Sorrow. Everyone experiences grief in their own way – there is no “right” way to grieve. Grief is an emotional shotgun blast that physically assaults your ability to sleep, eat, and focus.
Though grief is a uniquely personal experience, there are coping strategies and healthy ways to deal with grief that may help lessen your sadness and enable you to accept your loss and eventually move forward with your life.
Here are a few methods to cope with grief. These are:
Allow Yourself to Mourn
Give yourself permission to grieve. “Mourning is the public grieving process”. It is your way of bringing your sorrow together with others grieving the loss or wanting to help you.
The role that culture, religion and the individual’s own beliefs may play in the process of grieving is also considered. “Mourning is essential in helping to ease the pain of grieving and to move on after loss”.
Take Care of Yourself!
Sleeping patterns also serve as a physical sign of grief. poor appetite, disinterest in daily activities, and difficulty focusing. To get you out and move, reach out to someone and go out for dinner or walk. If health problems continue then “go visit your doctor”.
Don’t Make Major Decisions
Grief can be blinding in its ability to hamper judgment. Delay as long as possible taking a new job, changing cities, or making major financial commitments. Seek the opinion of a family member or trusted friend if you have to make one.
Get Support from Others
Lean on others for support. While it is natural to isolate and wish to retreat from the world, family, friends, or even a spiritual leader can help you to move beyond the acute stages of grief.
Get Professional Grief Counseling
A grief professional can assist you in finding healthy ways to cope with the grief and alleviate the pain of loss. Odyssey Counseling provides other forms of grief support for adults and children such as grief counseling and one-on-one counseling.
Some Practical Tips for Dealing with Grief
Everyone’s grief is unique, but here are a few suggestions for helping yourself or a loved one who is experiencing loss. You might find it helpful to…
- Start a letter to a loved one who has died and tell them what is in your heart.
- Journal or scrapbook about the time you spent together. This might be especially useful when trying to capture your parents’ legacy.
- Talk to someone you trust and don’t hold it in. Perhaps confide in a cleric, friend or family member.
- Expect recurring grief, particularly on birthdays or holidays.
- Be there for others who might be grieving. Being with someone who understands that we, too, are experiencing a terrible loss often helps.
Need to Schedule an Appointment with a Grief Counselor? Just Reach Out!
To make an appointment, or for information on grief support groups, please call 505-315-7397. Let our experienced counselors assist you to heal and get on with your life.
But how does one access hospice grief counseling? So where to begin? But don’t panic, we’ll take you through the whole thing.
How Can I Get Hospice Grief Counseling?
Hospice care does not stop when a patient passes away. Just as we supported families experiencing anticipatory grief with their loved one in our care, we provide support when we can help them begin to heal from their loved one’s loss and move on in life.
Grief is a Natural Part of Loss
We know that death is painful, that “death” is synonymous with heart-wrenching, soul-crushing sadness. There is nothing odd about mourning for someone who played a central role in your life. During the grieving period you might:
- Trouble concentrating
- Have trouble sleeping
- Lack of appetite
- Guilt – “I should have… or “If only I would have…”
- Anger – at ourselves, the person we believe is responsible, our God, or even the decedent
- Feel apathetic, isolated, or very sad when a particular memory is activated
- Withdrawal from the normal activities and relationships in our lives.
- Separate ourselves from the world
All of these are common during the grieving process.
It Will Take Time for Feelings of Grief to Subside
There are no set timelines for grieving the death of a loved one, but in time you should be able to:
- Accept the reality that your loved one has died
- Don’t avoid the pain and the sadness that will accompany the loss of your loved one
- Modify the everyday life of being without your loved one.
- Move on and create new connections
Should these emotions and physical reactions not resolve, and/or should you begin feeling depressed, your grief may have become complicated. Help is important to seek in this type of grief as well.
Our Counselors Can Help You Find Healthy Ways to Cope with Grief.
Whether through one on one or group sessions, our counselors can provide you with tools to create a new normal after losing a loved one and moving on with your life.
We recommend counseling, particularly if family members are struggling to move beyond their extreme grief.
We have adult and children’s grief care counselors. Children mourn in different ways than adults, and thus require counseling tailored to the unique “coping with the death of someone significant in their lives”.
Counseling can:
- Assist you in realizing that you have experienced a significant loss and assist you in accepting the reality of that loss in oder to help you moving forward into a life without your loved one.
- Assist you in addressing any trauma related to your loved one’s death.
- Provides you a neutral perspective enabling you to speak openly about your loved one and your relationship with him or her.
- Provide a safe place to feel and work on the loss and grief.
Odyssey Counseling Offers Grief Care to Anyone in Our Community
Grief care is also offered to all members of the community who have experienced a death. In sorrow support groups “individuals find a place where it is safe to express their feelings and discover that they are not alone in how they feel, are able to share in the experience of others”.
It’s easy to obtain the grief counseling you require. Just call us at 505-315-7397 to set up an appointment for one-on-one therapy. A counselor will call to determine what type of care would best fit your needs.
Listen In
