Grief is an overwhelming emotion, very strong and consuming. It’s the inevitable response to loss. Grief is both a common sensation and a deeply individualized one. It can’t be described in just one way, it’s subjective and diversifying. People feel grief about a lot of things that they have dealt with, it can be the loss of a loved one like a family member or friend, a recent breakup, or losing yourself to roles and responsibilities of the world.
Since it’s an overwhelming emotion, sometimes it becomes very difficult to handle it and to work with it. A lot of times, individuals learn to live with grief, they give themselves time to come to terms with what they have lost or whom they left behind. But sometimes, people can’t cope with the idea of losing that person or thing, it becomes so gripping that people lose themselves in the whole process.
Grief and dealing with grief are a process, which is long and emotionally, mentally, and physically taxing. Grief works in stages as proposed by Kubler-Ross in 1969. She proposed 7 stages of the grieving process which consist of shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance. Every individual who is in the grieving process undergoes these stages of grief, they may acknowledge it or may not, but everyone deals with understanding the grief and finally accepting their predicament.
When we lose someone or something or ourselves, we lose a part of ourselves, we are forced to say Goodbye and something is involuntarily snatched from us, that feeling of emptiness and a sinking sensation often becomes so absorbing that we don’t feel like carrying out our daily activities or engaging in social convention or even taking time for ourselves.
However, in those times, it’s important to remember, or, in some cases find our sense of purpose. It becomes essential to remember that “The show must go on”. Yes, it’s very easy to say these things, but grief indirectly teaches us to find our purpose, and make our life worthwhile for us and for those who left us.
When an individual is grieving, one thing that helps a lot is to remember that the situation won’t stay the same always and even though in a weak moment a person may feel alone, they aren’t actually alone. It’s very necessary to handle grief in the correct way, have an adequate support system or seek professional help.
Importance of Professional Counseling: A friend or family member may listen to you, but they aren’t professionally, technically qualified or experienced to offer you professional advice. If you wish you can contact us at MindTribe to receive help from our team of expert psychologists.
About MindTribe.in.
MindTribe Founder Dr. Prerna Kohli, India’s eminent psychologist, established the company to leverage the strength of the online to make counseling affordable and accessible to everyone. MindTribe provides counseling, workshops, support groups, forums, and eLearning.
About the Author.
Tamanna Tewari is a psychologist at MindTribe.in. You can learn more about her by clicking here
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MindTribe.in, the Founders, or management team.
Acknowledgement: All images used are open source and from Unsplash.