Tag Archives: stages of grief

Are You Ever Done With the Stages of Grief?

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Old antique table

Grief is a very powerful emotion!

It seems to come in waves.

The first powerful wave tends to knock you off your feet.

It takes a while to get up.

Once you get your feet under you, the next wave can surprise you just as much!

Dog Gone!  You thought you had this under control.  You thought you were healing and moving forward.

Time heals.  However, healing tends to sets the stage for the next layer of grief to demand expression.

As much as you want to be done feeling like dung, you need to grieve when you need to grieve.

Do you see your grieving process somewhere in the list of the stages of grief? Continue reading Are You Ever Done With the Stages of Grief? →

How Do You Support Mourners Through the Stages of Grief?

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Stages of Grief

Grief just is.  There is no right and wrong to it.  It just is.

Though there are many flavors of grief.

You are touched by it when a member of your community is struck down unexpectedly.

When you experience personal loss grief can swallow you whole.

Grief can surprise you.  Sometimes your emotions are unavailable to you for a while.  You need time to heal a bit before you can open them up.

Other times your emotions spill out and you are shocked by their intensity.

Grief feels like suffering, it’s hard to see it as healthy in anyway.

You just want it to stop.

Would you choose to stop the grief if it meant that you couldn’t remember your loved one?

Even in the early stages of grief when it’s rough to even breathe, erasing your precious memories would be far too high a price to pay.

When your pain is so raw you think it will kill you, hold on to the fact that time will eventually heal you so that you can remember and smile.

Time is definitely a friend to the grieving.

When you can think of your lost loved one and laugh and enjoy the memory, you know that Time is doing its job.

The grieving process is a very individual thing, but understanding that there really are common aspects to it can help you feel less crazy or to worry less about others who grieve differently than you do.

Do you see yourself somewhere in the process? Continue reading How Do You Support Mourners Through the Stages of Grief? →

How Long Does It Take To Work Through the Stages of Grief?

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There is no right way to grieve.  There is no time limit to grief.

The rest of the world may want you to “get over it” and rejoin the living, but you will grieve until you have allowed the grieving process to heal you.

That can be challenging, because grief hurts so much it feels like it will kill you.  It is hard to “allow” an emotion that feels so harmful.

It is hard to allow the stages of grief.

Denial feels so much better than grief within the moments that your heart is breaking.

Lena was very close to her family.

Her parents had a very deep love, and they shared that Love with her and her younger sister.

When her Father passed, her Mother wasn’t far behind.  She said she knew her mom wouldn’t stick around without him.

Lena felt orphaned.  Her grief was so deep and wide that she thought it would swallow her whole.

Lena’s sister passed only a few years after her parents, and then Continue reading How Long Does It Take To Work Through the Stages of Grief? →