Grief can follow you throughout every aspect of your life, from sitting in class to even shopping at the supermarket. Unfortunately for me, this feeling is all too familiar.
For the majority of my life now, navigating grief has become something I deal with regularly. The loss of a loved one affects you long after it initially happens, and it’s hard to deal with, especially as a young adult.
Even though navigating these feelings can be tough, I’ve learned how to manage my experiences with grief through various ways.
Coping With Grief
Grief is the acute pain that accompanies any kind of loss. Grief isn’t just mourning a loved one: it can be mourning a relationship, an event, a job, and more. Although everyone grieves differently, loss is typically accompanied by five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Grief affects everyone, so everyone copes differently. Â
Unfortunately for us, no miracle drug or ointment just helps you pack up and move on from your grief because it never truly goes away. You just learn to move forward with it; you grow around it, and you make space for it. Even when life gets easier, grief can be triggered by holidays, events, and other important anniversaries.
How does it get easier to live with grief? While there’s not an immediate solution, there are strategies you can use to help you cope with grief in your everyday life.
Have a Support System
Navigating the loss of a loved one can feel isolating, but it’s important to remember that you’re not dealing with it alone
Having a strong support system can make grief feel a little easier to talk about. Whether it be friends, family, a therapist, or other people experiencing loss, having people to find comfort in and talk to can make it feel a tiny bit easier.
The hardest part of grief is trying not to feel like you’re drowning in it. There are days when I just feel like letting myself sink, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Tethering yourself to the people you love and allowing yourself to accept help from them is one of the best ways to help yourself through it.
Give Yourself Grace
One of the hardest things to accept while grieving is that it’s not something you ever fully recover from. There’s no end to it; there’s just some easier days, and some days that are harder. It’s important to remember that healing isn’t linear, and just because you have a harder day doesn’t mean you’re not making progress.
It’s frustrating to feel like you’re not making any progress, or even regressing through progress you’ve made, but that’s just the growing pains that come with grief. You have to make space for the hard days to make others feel easier.
It can be hard to remember everything you’ve gone through and how much you’ve grown when you are facing those harder days, but just remember to give yourself some grace. You’re navigating one of life’s hardest journeys, and you’re making progress in it.
These aren’t absolute fixes, but they helped me to cope with my grief. Coping with grief is an infinite battle, and every small win is a step you take forward towards growth.
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