Grief May Not Always Be About The Death Of A Loved One
If you have experienced the death of a loved one, or find yourself overwhelmed with grief in general, it is important to know that this emotion can carry with it many different meanings. Sometimes grief is about the loss of something intangible like a job or an opportunity. Regardless of what has created your current state, living under the weight of constant grief can be difficult and exhausting. In this blog post we will provide some tips on how to better cope with your sorrow so you can move forward and deal more effectively with life's challenges.
For many people, the experience of grieving for someone they love or cared deeply for is painful and overwhelming in its own right. However, not all instances of grief should be attributed to death alone. It can be a good idea to consider the possibility that other events may be affecting your life so you can make wise decisions in the future.
For example, some people choose to give up on their dreams or ambitions when they find themselves yearning to do something they were previously interested in. It is completely understandable that the loss of something so close could lead to an impulsive reaction such as this. However, it is important to remember that pursuing your dream will not necessarily hinder your ability to cope with things in your current life state. For example, if you are weeding out all aspects of yourself that you find inadequate and useless, then giving up on certain dreams would be unnecessary and unhelpful for you long-term goal.
It is also important to consider that giving up on your goals and dreams might have a negative effect on your current relationships. As long as you communicate with the people in your life about why you are making the decision to give up on certain things, there is no guarantee that they will reject or abandon you. On the contrary, there is a possibility that they will understand and support you in your decision and even hold an interest in fulfilling some of these dreams themselves.
The question of how to cope with grief must be answered by each individual based on his/her own unique experiences, cultural norms as well as spiritual and psychological values. It is not a one size fits all approach, and is affected by the individual's current social environment. It is important to recognize that grief needs to be worked through, not avoided by avoiding reminders of the source of your pain or being too busy with your new life. Grief also needs time to run its course and recovery should be done in layers. The following tips are meant as an overview of what you can do while working through grief:
1) Allow yourself to experience emotions. This may include tears and anger. It may also include feelings of guilt, complacency or even relief. Try not to judge these feelings or let yourself get pulled into them (you may need help if this happens). Simply allow yourself to feel whatever you feel and work with the feelings you have.
2) Create a meaningful memorial for the person who has died. This could be something as simple as a stone for a loved one's grave or a candle that stays burning. Anything that helps you remember them helps in the healing process.
3) Work on accepting your grief and giving yourself time to grieve. There is no need to rush this process, but it is important to realize that it will eventually be over one day and that it would be wrong to stay in your present state indefinitely - some kind of change will happen eventually and hopefully it will bring about positive change for the future.
4) Do not feel guilty or ashamed of your grief. This is a natural phase of loss and acceptance.
5) Talk to others who have experienced similar losses or are in the same situation as you. This could include friends, family, lovers, religious leaders or anybody else you can trust. Sometimes talking is all it takes to get yourself through this time.
6) Take stock of your life and decide what to do differently or differently than before your loss. By assuming responsibility for these changes you take the power away from the situation and give yourself an opportunity to make different choices in the future (without blaming the past).
7) Try to get out of your current life state and into other activity that you find helpful. This includes exercise, a hobby, being with friends or family, reading a book, etc. These are all possibilities for recovery.
8) Think about your future and what greater good you can accomplish in it. Be as positive as possible and try to make the most of whatever opportunities you have access to in the future.
Grief doesn't have to be about death of someone close to us... It can be about something intangible we've lost or how many hours it takes to do something. It's an emotional roller-coaster that we don't always want to be on.
Grief can affect us in various ways, sometimes it is the loss of our dream, sometimes it is the loss of a job or some other indefinite thing, sometimes it is the impossibility to move forward when there's someone else who has died. Then, you realize that there are no right choices and that one thing doens't fit into another, but actually everything fits into everything else.
Sometimes we are a part of physical things (e.g. material things), but sometimes a part of our memories (e.g. a place or a person). The main difference is that the latter can be rebound.
This is where art comes in, with its advantage of being abstract and flexible, it helps us to re-find the lost part, to recreate the missing link between two parts; so we can finally put them together and create something new. This is how best to move forward…moving backward isn't an option.
This is when creativity takes over and takes us into a new dimension where there are no rules (in art, more than in life itself).
This is when a new wave of emotions floods your heart, taking you to a new dimension. It's called "creative freedom".
Then, art becomes the answer to our daily problems. To find a way to go on and find solutions for everything that comes up during the day. (...)So we can actually start living again…
In any case, it's okay to feel all of the above. It's okay not to be okay and not being able to do anything about it until you've found a way out of it.
And, it's okay to ride the wave. It's okay to let it take you and sweep you away. We all have to go through this before we can be present in life...
"Knowledge is unnecessary for love; love itself is sufficient to make men happy with each other, without being necessary for their happiness."
The first step towards creative expression is knowledge of what artists do and what they do not get in the process of expression. The assumption here is that artists are those who are interested in expressing themselves through creativity. Artists are those who express themselves through creation, whether that be writing or artistry.
Conclusion:
Communication is the transmission of information and emotion from one thinker to another, through the use of all five senses. The process of communication stems from what information was known before the process began and what information and emotion is known at the end. By means of communication we are able to share our thoughts, feelings and emotions with other sentient beings. Without communication human beings would be unable to express or experience their own personal ideas and emotions or anyone else's. Communication via Speech, Language & Non-Verbal Communication allow us to thrive in our social world and form symbiotic relationships with others (Gottman & DeClaire, 2010)
The most prevailing form of communication both in society as well as nature is language.