How to cope with grief in a healthy way?

Your Guide to Nurturing Mental Health During Difficult Times

Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences anyone can face. The pain of grief can feel overwhelming, affecting our mental health and daily lives. However, it’s important to make space for grief and let the uncomfortable feelings in.

In this blog, we will explore how to cope with grief in a healthy way, providing valuable insights and strategies to help with healthy grief. Whether you’re dealing with the death of a loved one, loss of a job, or any other form of grief, this guide will offer support and guidance.

Understanding the Grieving Process

Grief is a natural response to loss, and acknowledging it can help in the healing journey. 

The well documented theory on the stages of grief, including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, is a way to start conversations around the difficult emotions. However it’s important to realize that your experience may not follow a linear path and can vary for each person depending on their relationship with the person who died. 

Recognizing that grief can happen in stages allows us to validate our emotions and navigate the healing process.

Embracing Your Emotions

Grief brings a wide range of emotions, and it’s important to acknowledge and express them. Whether you’re feeling sad, angry, or overwhelmed, remember that these emotions are normal. It can feel uncomfortable to sit with difficult emotions but try not to distract yourself and numb the pain. This could hinder the grieving process and cause more pain further down the line. 

If you’re struggling to grieve alone, allow yourself to lean on your support system. A strong support system can include family members, friends, and support groups. Sharing your feelings can help you begin to process emotions, provide solace and help to alleviate the pain of grief.

Building a Support System

During times of grief, the presence of caring and empathetic people is crucial. Surround yourself with understanding friends and family members who can offer a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on. Loneliness can have a huge impact on your mental health and can amplify the hurtful feelings brought about by grief. 

Try to create moments to look forward to as it can help with managing the difficult emotions. If you are a part of any communities like sports teams or book clubs, try to still make an effort to attend if you’re able to and allow your community to reach out and care for you.

Participating in support groups can also be incredibly helpful, as they provide a safe space to connect with others who have experienced similar loss. This can be especially helpful if you feel that your current support network doesn’t understand the pain you’re feeling and need to be around people who are going through a similar experience. 

Seeking Professional Help

If your grief feels too heavy to bear alone or you start to experience complicated grief, seeking the guidance of a mental health professional is essential. Grief counseling can provide a structured approach to navigating your emotions and offer tools to cope with the pain. 

A mental health professional can help you understand and process your grief, offering valuable insights and personalized strategies for healthy grieving. There’s a range of options when it comes to professional help and if therapy isn’t suitable for you then you can try the Grief Works app.

Nurturing Your Mental Health

Caring for your mental health is vital while coping with grief. Often intense feelings like grief can amplify poor coping strategies and harm your mental health even further if you were already struggling. 

Engaging in self-care activities, such as exercise, meditation, or journaling, can help alleviate stress and promote emotional well-being. Treating yourself well and with kindness will help you to take the time to nurture yourself and practice self-compassion. 

Remember that healing takes time, and it’s okay to prioritize your mental health during this journey. Healthy grieving is not about forgetting or moving on, but rather finding ways to honor and remember your loved ones while nurturing your own well-being.

Anticipatory Grief and the Loss of a Loved One

Anticipatory grief refers to the emotional process experienced when anticipating the death of a loved one, often due to a terminal illness. This type of grief can be challenging as it involves a mixture of emotions, including sadness, anxiety, and uncertainty. 

It’s important to seek support during this difficult time, whether through support groups or professional counseling, to navigate the complexities of anticipatory grief.

Grief Beyond Death: Coping with Other Losses

Grief extends beyond the death of a loved one. Other losses, such as the loss of a job, can also trigger a grieving process. The feelings of grief, including sadness, anger, and confusion, are valid and should be acknowledged. 

It’s important to lean on your support system, seek professional guidance if needed, and remember that healing is possible, even in non-traditional forms of grief.

Find Grief Support with Grief Works by Illume

Getting support when grieving is essential, but it can be challenging.

The Grief Works app offers 24/7 support in the palm of your hand. The 28-session therapeutic course will help you process your grief at your own pace, and you’ll gain access to 30+ interactive tools to manage your emotions when you need them.

Connect with a community that cares for you, attend live monthly group sessions with Julia herself and have the option to text-chat to a counsellor when needed.

Reach out for support now to take the first step towards soothing your pain, building your strength and healing from grief.