Grief & Loss

THERAPIES

Grief manifests itself in many ways and can be the result of different circumstances and events.

Grief over the loss of a loved one is probably the most common. At the time. you can feel as if you will never get over it, as if you cannot live life without them and may even contemplate suicide.

You may feel as if you cannot stop crying and want to reject the attempts of others to show you comfort and care. Still more people may tell you that you should be over it and seem to want to allot a time period to mourning.

Whilst grief can seem a very individual thing in terms of expression. such as crying, difficulty sleeping. not wanting to eat or eating too much, drinking alcohol or not wanting to socialise or partying more, the fact is that grief and love are intertwined and inseparable.

If we dare to love, we risk loss. Loving other human beings may mean that when they leave us through death or other circumstances, we must find a way to continue. We may grieve the loss of a beautiful home for example through relationship break-up, natural disaster or war because we remember all that happened there — the shared meals. the quiet time with loved ones, the fun with visitors or just the way the light would fall across a room or the cosiness of

a winter night in front of the fire, all the memories that call forth love.

We may grieve the end of school, knowing that going through the good times and the bad drew us close to the classmates that we may never see again. In this way, grief can involve adapting to change and let us know, by it’s intensity, just how much and how strongly we value the people and experiences, we must accept the loss of in order to live a complete, authentic and satisfying life.

Grief can call forth other emotions such as anger, particularly if there is an apparent injustice involved. One such thing may be grief at the loss of a job with anger at being left without the comradeship of workmates and a purpose in life, also loss of income with it’s attendant problems of affording food and shelter.

Grief makes us FEEL and feel strongly because its shows us how much WE CARE and it is this caring that is part of the human condition.