Grief is a deeply personal and challenging journey, but it’s also a natural response to loss. My goal is to help you navigate life's challenges with ease and confidence while I do the same over here.
While there’s no “right” way to grieve, the following guidelines I've shared with many of my clients may help you navigate this difficult time and find moments of comfort and healing. Let me know if you'd like to dive deeper into any specific type of loss or any method of processing emotions!
1. Recognize and Acknowledge the Emotional Storm
Some days you might feel okay, and other days it’ll hit like a ton of bricks. You might feel sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, or even a mix of all of these. These emotions are all valid. Suppressing these feelings can delay healing. Allow yourself to feel the full range of emotions without judgment. It’s okay not to be okay. Write them down, share them, or even speak them out loud to yourself. Naming the emotions can help you process them.
2. Prioritize Self-Care
Grief takes a physical toll, so prioritize basic needs like eating well (even if small bites), staying hydrated, and getting a lot of rest. Grief can be exhausting! Gentle exercise, like walking, stretching or yoga, can also help release tension and improve your mood. Engage in activities that bring you comfort, whether it’s listening to music, enjoying a hot drink, reading, or spending time in nature.
3. Honor Your Loss
Finding meaningful ways to honor your loved one can bring a sense of peace. Look at photos, create a photo folder, keep an item of them close by, share stories or memories with friends and family , create a memory box, plant a tree in their name, fund a scholarship in their name, get a tattoo or a jewelry with their name, or participate in activities they loved. Rituals like lighting a candle, creating a new tradition or writing them a letter can help you stay connected while you heal.
If your loss is of a job, a relationship, a time in your life, please don't discard it. You can feel it just as deeply. Sometimes you can see the other side of a transition, but it's still hard and painful. You can honor your loss similarly to the suggestions I made above. For example, you can get a look at pictures, keep a group of friends from college, keep a keepsake from the very important relationship you had, write a letter to the ex-friend and so forth.
4. Be Patient with Yourself
Grief isn’t linear (I actually like to think of it as a spiral, where we go around and around, passing by where we were before) and there’s no timeline for healing. Celebrate small steps forward, but know it’s okay to revisit your pain when needed. Grief is also like the ocean—it comes in waves. Sometimes they’re gentle ripples; other times, they crash hard. Accept this rhythm and know it’s part of healing. Be patient. Don’t rush yourself or expect a specific timeline. Healing happens at its own pace, and that’s okay.
5. Lean on Your Support Network
Tell your friends and family how they can support you. Be specific, like, “I need someone to listen,” or “Can you help me with errands this week?” People often want to help but don’t know how. If you feel isolated, consider joining a grief group or seeking professional guidance. You don’t have to do this alone. Sharing your feelings with others who understand can be incredibly healing.
7. It's Moving Forward
Over time, you may begin to find moments of hope and purpose. Embrace these moments without guilt. You are moving forward with your loss not from it. Healing does NOT mean forgetting—it means learning to live with your loss while carrying the love and memories forward. At the same time, keep in mind that grief is like the waves and those strong feelings can show up intensely at a later time, but they will subside faster than before.
One thing I want to highlight: you are not alone. This happens to all of us sometime in our lives. I'm going through it myself as I share this with you.
Grief can represent the death of a loved one, but also a transition in life, the loss of a job, or the breakup of a relationship. Whatever was a part of your story, will continue to be a part of your story. If you are grieving it is because you loved, and that is beautiful in its own right. I've grieved many times in my life. It means I've had many amazing experiences.
When Emotions Feel Stuck
If you find yourself stuck—unable to function in daily life or feeling consumed by your emotions—reach out to a mental health coach or therapist. Professional help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s one of the bravest steps one can take toward healing. As a mental health coach myself, I have helped hundreds of clients with grief. Sometimes they are old emotions my clients are trying to ignore. Other times they are numb and no emotions are getting through. If you want to see what's possible when we work together, please schedule a chat with no strings attached by clicking here or give me a call. Processing grief doesn’t mean eliminating the pain—it’s about learning to accept it and finding ways to carry all your emotions with kindness.
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