Rethinking Grief

Grief is one of the most common experiences we have as humans. Just because it's common, however, doesn't mean that everyone feels like they know how to navigate their grief in ways that feel nurturing. From ideas about the Stages of Grief, to societally-imposed timelines about when one should "get over" a loss, our collective culture in the United States could likely benefit from a shift in how we talk about grief.

Grief is more than a period of intense sadness, or sorrow, and because of that, it's not entirely useful to thinking about grief as something you "get over." 

When I talk about grief, I'm talking about the loss of people, and pets, and difficult moves to other states, and job loss, and miscarriage, and losing family heirlooms, and natural disasters, and I could honestly fill up this entire blog post with so many iterations of grief it would make your head spin.

​So what happens if we shift to thinking about grief as an expression of how we experience (dis)connection to, or from, people, places, items, events, etc? Did your eyes get a little wider reading that?

Grief requires tenderness and care and part of that care is ensuring that we're comprehensive in our definitions of grief. 

If you're interested in diving deeper into your own understanding (or experiences) of grief, I recommend the following:

The Dinner Party
The Dougy Center 
It's Okay That You're Not Okay
Option B
What's Your Grief
@WritingGrief