Healthy Ways to Cope with Grief and Heal After Loss

Loss is a sharp and severe suffering that people always face in their life cycle. It is a common feeling people have when they lose someone or something close to their heart. 

When it is the death of a loved one, break up, or any other change of life events, then grief and mourning are not easy. But there are better ways to cope with grief. In this blog, one can learn methods of dealing with grief and pain caused by loss, grief stages, and actions to start healing.

Understanding Grief and Loss

What is Grief?

Grief is the sorrow one feels in response to losing a loved or valued person or object. Usually, many emotions are connected with the loss, including sadness, anger, guilt, or even relief, depending on the circumstances. Knowing what grief is may well define the difference between handling it or not at all.

Everyone mourns as they wish and feels the emotions as they are. Some people may cry a lot from sadness, some may laugh a lot from joy, and others may not. What can help is seeking out and beginning the healing process in a manner that works for you.

Stages of Grief

Grieving is not easily explained, but it is usually categorized into stages. The stages of grief are:

Denial: It is often difficult to believe the loss has happened. Sometimes, you feel this is normal since, at times, it may seem as if what has happened is untrue.

Anger –  In the anger stage of grief, reality may hit you, and you may feel helpless and frustrated. You may resent what has befallen you or even hate yourself.

Bargaining – Deals, bargains, or wishes may surface to attempt to regain what is lost or perhaps to avoid further anguish.

Depression – Hopelessness and sadness may overwhelm you now. You also may feel loneliness and isolation.

Acceptance – You start to gradually accept that the loss has taken place. This doesn't mean you are "over it." It just means you learn to live with it and look for ways to move on.

Healthy Ways to Cope with Grief

To cope with grief is not forgetting the pain but learning to live with it. There are quite a few healthy ways that a person can cope with grief that help ease the pain of loss. Here are some tips:

• Allow Yourself to Grieve

In its simplest form, grief begins with accepting you’re feeling a certain way. There is no need for a person to disallow himself from having feelings of sadness, anger, or any other in this regard. Do not discourage yourself from grieving when sad; rather, allow yourself to cry for a while. It is normal, and if you suppress or try to avoid feeling any emotions, you will slow down your healing process.

• Talk About Your Feelings

The best way to cope with grief is by venting out your emotions in one way or the other. You must speak to a friend, relative, loved one, or even a qualified counselor or psychologist. Sharing what you have experienced will assist with feelings of grieving and allow for frustration and empathy. Loss does not necessarily need to be healed; sometimes, it is enough to have someone to listen.

• Practice Self-Care

It is important to take care of your body and your feelings when you’re grieving. You will experience a lot of fatigue when grieving. Therefore, you should ensure ample rest and consume healthy food. Useful types of physical exercise include walking, yoga, etc; these help ease tension and improve mood.

• Seek Professional Help

At some point, pain can be unbearable, and one feels that one cannot cope with grief alone. Anytime you feel overwhelmed, it is very helpful to consult a professional. A grief therapist can help as you go through the grief process since you’ll experience ups and downs.

• Join a Support Group

There is nothing quite like joining a group of people struggling or going through the same things you are going through. Grief support groups are friendly forums to express yourself, learn from others’ experiences, and get important information on handling grief. When you meet people who can share the same feelings with you, you won’t feel as lonely as you were before.

• Express Yourself Creatively

The best part of this article is the information implying that creativity may serve as a helpful way to cope with grief. It can be painting, dancing, writing, playing music, or even tending a garden – whatever expectations have been made – creative outlets can assist you in letting out feelings and discovering purpose in grief.

For instance, journaling can assist you in expressing a number of the ways that you feel, in addition to helping you record your recovery process.

• Give Yourself Time

There is no time limit to grieving. It is perhaps important to remember that everyone heals in their way and at their own rate. Never force yourself or allow other people to force you to move on to the next steps of grieving. Take permission from yourself to mourn at your own pace. The grief process is gradual, and you must understand that recovery from the loss is a gradual one.

Practical Strategies to do in the Grieving Process

Various techniques can assist anyone in healthily going through grief. As with all the methods, some will suit you better than others when coping with a bad phase. Some other processes to cope with grief are

Mindfulness and Meditation

Meditation and other deep breathing exercises used in mindfulness are some things you need to use to cope with grief. Mindfulness is when you can focus on the present moment where you find yourself instead of worrying about the past or future.

Exercise

Exercising seems to be a useful tool when one feels upset or just needs relief from tension. Aerobic exercises such as walking, swimming, or cycling may provide a helpful experience in overcoming loss-related pain for a long-term accomplishment.

Final Thoughts

Understanding what the stages of grief are, allowing oneself to be able to cope with grief, and finding positive ways to deal with it is where healing resumes. Healing from pain after loss takes time, and it is okay if you need to ask for help sometimes along the way.

To anyone out there or a loved one who is experiencing grief, please know that you are not alone. Call us or talk to someone about it. It seems that grieving does not make life easier, but by learning how to grieve and following the right methods passionately, it can be healed.

If you need to ease through a grieving period, Lifebulb is here to support you in the best way we can. Counselors at Lifebulb provide expertise in professional mental health consultations where you can receive support when experiencing grief or any other emotion.