How To Cope With Grief.

You have just lost a loved one, ended your relationship, lost your job, lost your friend or family member. All these things will make you sad in some way. All these bad occurrences are bound to cause you some grief.

How you handle the grief will determine how quickly you can get over it. Handling grief is hard, especially when you have little to no social capital. The kind of people who are willing to empathize with you.

During this pandemic period, there are many people who have found themselves in grief for one reason or the other. Most common at the moment is the loss of a loved one, friend, or family member to the virus, or the loss of a job or a business closing down.

That brings us to the question,

How are we supposed to cope with grief?

Grief can be overwhelming even to those who consider themselves emotionally strong. But how can you handle it? Since there is no On / Off button for grief, the best way is just to manage it.

Since I have personally been hit with multiple griefs during this pandemic period, I hope my tips will help those of you who are facing similar experiences. The technique is not a one-size-fits-all kind of tips; take it with some pinch of salt. The most important is to find out what works best for you.

1. Cry – let the pain come, don’t try to stop it. Then cry it out. This may sound cliché or common sense to you. But it works. Just don’t suppress it when it comes; let it out. Scream if you must. After doing so, you will feel much better. This is like allowing yourself to feel the pain. You are the career of the pain; only you understand how it feels, so let loose and allow yourself to feel the pain.
2. Engage in your hobbies – During this grief period, you need to find something that works for you, something you don’t invest so much of your willpower to achieve. Avoid stressful assignments and tasks that will kick you deeper into depression when you underachieve.
3. Self-affirmation – Keep affirming to yourself that you will get through the situation. That nothing is permanent. Assure yourself that something good is waiting for you in the future. That way you will dwell on the positive side that the future has in store rather than the negativity of the grief.
4. Acceptance – some people will remain in the grieving mode for a long time because of denial. Yes, this will be very strong in the first few days. But as time goes, you will have to get used to the idea that it has happened. And for those irreversible occurrences like death, there is very little you can do to bring the person or pet back to life. All you need to do is accept that the worst has happened and learn to live with it.

These are just but a few ways of coping with grief. The list can go on and on. The bottom line is that you need to find what works best for you. Then apply it every time you find yourself in such a situation.