Grief Process
A multidimensional process. Beyond feelings, our reactions to loss include physical, psychological, behavioral, philosophical, spiritual, social, and cultural manifestations.
What is Grief?
The reminders of grief.
What are grief activators or triggers?
This happens as you allow your thoughts and feelings to exist without judgment or resistance; to face all that is.
What is holding onto the weight of grief?
The act of treating yourself with the same kindness, deep understanding, and empathy as you would a friend.
What is self-compassion?
Is often an essential way to care for yourself, cope, and integrate your cherished person or thing into your new life.
What is maintaining an ongoing connection?
In this culture, rarely are people comfortable hearing about your grief or seeing you mourn. For most, it often feels safer to avoid reminders that heartbreak happens and will affect us all.
What is Western Culture (the U.S)?
Arises when change or death is imminent. It includes holding the weight and pain of the prognosis for weeks, months, or years.
What is Anticipatory Grief?
This is an intentional, active, and courageous act. It means not trying to make your sorrow go away or feel better, but instead allowing yourself to appropriately "wallow in the pain" without judgment.
What is sitting with Saddness?
A mind-body technique meant to take you on a brief inner journey.
What is guided imagery?
Identified through actions you take, love that you both experience and give, and the attitudes you take toward suffering.
What is meaning?
These at their core, survival tactics, as they protect us while we recover from our loss.
What are grief behaviors?
An intentional mindset and behavior meant to tend to and address your needs, and there are many ways to access it.
What is Self-care?
Facing all the thoughts.
What is making room for difficult emotions?
Helps us regulate our heart, body, and mind so we can sit with and explore our emotions and connect with our logical mind to problem-solve.
What is breathing through grief?
Powerfully beneficial for you and others.
What is sharing your loss story?
The stages of Grief.
What is denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance?
They can occur months, years, and even decades after a loss and can happen "for no reason," be cyclic , linear , or triggered by something
What are sudden temporary upsurges of grief (STUGs)?
This transitional environment allows you to reconsider and reconstruct your sense of self, worldview, and post-loss life.
What is liminal Space?
The practice of mindfully stepping away from challenging emotions to refocus on the present moment, which reduces the intensity of your emotional experience.
What is grounding?
Will empower you to keep moving between feeling your emotions and functioning in life.
What are affirmations, guided meditations and visualizations, self-care suggestions, and coping skills?
Disorientation, emotional volatility, anger, loneliness, numbness, loss of appetite, disbelief, guilt, shame, and anxiety.
What are common grief reactions?
A softening in perspective about grief, growing confidence in living life post-loss, and embracing the person you're becoming through grief. Instead of grief being something to work through, it becomes a familiar and invited companion in your day-to-day life.
What is integrating Loss into life?
Heartache and sorrow need not indicate that something is wrong; they aren't feelings that need to be alleviated.
What is grieving to find peace?
This releases the energy motivating the emotions, which opens up space for compassion, healing the emotions at the root, and feeling peace.
What is mindful forgiveness?
You don't have to do this.
What is "move on"?