Grief Support Can Come From Many Sources
There Are Many Resources Which Can Help You Heal
Grief is a very important part of the process whenever we suffer feelings of loss. People experience grief for a variety of reasons such as a changing jobs, moving to a new location, or a significant loss of a pet, spouse, child or parent. Grief is a human way to deal with the feelings of love that we believe have ended. There is no one way to grieve, nor is there one solution for everyone. Every individual grieves differently. Also, our society at large does not offer us a general way to honor or cope with grief. Since we are a society that is always struggling with things like time management and high pressures or demands, taking time to grieve…or even knowing how to grieve…is not part of our system. However, religion often fills this gap in our society.
Religion and Faith
Most religions have rituals that can be followed to help with grief and how to grieve a loss. These rituals can provide us with a way to get through the initial shock of grief, and there are many religious oranizations and affiliations who are willing to lend a helping hand through individual and group support. However, as many people know who have been through a loss, when the rituals of religion end there is still grieve and the adjustment of loss to deal with.
Grief Books
There are many books written about grief and many suggestions as to how to deal with loss. (Click here to see a list of our: Five Excellent Books on Grief) But as stated before there is no one single way to grieve, and each person and their situation is unique. Part of that is due to the physical and emotional reactions we have to grief. As human beings, when we experience a significant loss, our body’s initial reaction can often be a state of shock, causing us to disconnect from the reality of the situation we are dealing with. Then, after this initial shock of grief, we begin to feel the effects of things like fear, loss, loneliness, and simply overwhelmed with the idea of how this will affect our lives.
Your Support System
It is from these kinds of difficult situations that cause many people to feel confused and even hopeless, which is exactly why grief support, books, religion, family and friends play such an important role. Our significant loss affects our life in many ways. How are we going to manage without this person in our life? How will we adjust financially, socially and personally? How will we be able to take on the role of the other person?
One of the major elements in how we grieve is determined by what kind of support system we have. Do we have family and friends who can help us deal with the changes in our life? When we have people we have people to turn to it can really help the grieving process. When we don’t have good support system grief can become too much for one person to deal with. If the case of the latter, this would be a time to seek grief counseling.
Professional Grief Counseling
Grief counseling can help you move through the grief easier and more effectively. A good professional grief counselor or program will help you identify where you are in the grief process and understand what needs to occur to develop a new way of coping with your life, and learning to live without the significant person you have lost. Grief counseling will also help you deal with the feelings and emotions of your loss, both through learning and expressing these feelings with others. There are many examples of the different stages of grief. Elizabeth Kubler Ross was a pioneer in the area of grief and loss. She developed the stages of grief that are now an important aspect of grief counseling.