COPING WITH GRIEF:

As we move closer to the Holiday Season, many of us will be coping with grief, like it or not. Grief will  be a part of our lives, earlier or later; it is part of being human.

There will be the expected loneliness and being alone as well as missing ‘what used to be’. We will need  some solitude to heal and rejuvenate.

There is a difference between loneliness and solitude. We grieve in both, just in different ways. Most of us would not choose loneliness, but I suggest we should chose solitude within this loneliness to meditate, pray, reflect  and heal.

Let’s shift to how we might manage this grief. Coping encompasses four different things as sited  from Horizon Grief Resource Center, Fall, 2019 Volume 10, Issue 3. 

“First, use your support network effectively. Secondly, meet  new people with like interests. Third, get out in your community…take a class, join a club, volunteer. Lastly, honor your loneliness and give yourself permission to cry when you feel lonely.”

Just like the picture above, grief is  a journey and sometimes it feels like you walk that path endlessly,  with nothing but more of the same ahead of you. But in my own experience, one day the walk gets easier and you come upon a meadow where you receive some rest before you continue on in the healing.

If you are grieving a loss, may you find the coping skills that are right for you and move toward your ‘meadow’.

PJP