Coping With Grief - Losing a Loved One

Moving away from my usual topics, I felt compelled to write about grief and how you can cope when experiencing a loss.
Maybe this will touch someone at just the right moment or help someone during a time that is very sad, stressful, confusing or overwhelming.

Losing a loved one can be one of the most difficult and stressful experience we ever face in our lives. Yet an experience we all, unfortunately, will have to face and cope with at some point in our lives.

My family experienced the loss of a loved one on April 16th. Our loss was not of violence as many experienced that very same day, but the loss of a loved one is the most traumatic experience you have to cope with.

When death comes we do not really know what to do, where to go or who we are now. Everything changes. We all know that one day we all must leave our physical form, leave this earth, but yet we are all still unprepared for our death or that of a loved one.

Then again, how can anyone be prepared ?

Loss can include the break-up of a relationship, a miscarriage, the termination of pregnancy, separation from family and friends (homesickness), loss of health, moving.
Other forms of loss can still touch us so profoundly, such as the death of a pet or if you happen to be a medical or nursing student, you may have experienced feelings of loss when a patient dies.

With loss comes a strong feeling that part of our emotional world has changed forever and can never be retrieved or made good. Loss is central to our lives.

It is often through brokeness and loss that we truly grow into our humanity and develop the compassion that connects us to others. Following loss of any kind we go through a period of adjustment. This time and process is called grieving. It`s important to remember that grief is natural and necessary. Though the range and intensity of grief may come as a surprise, it is an entirely normal process that has been with us since the beginning of time. And, of course, as we adjust and the bits of our emotional life start to settle into a new pattern, the grief gently recedes.

Just as scar tissue is said to be stronger than the surrounding skin, so does our grieving often lead us to a state of greater resilience where we are more able to deal with future adversity.

CLICK HERE to continue reading more in depth details on my Squidoo Lens: How To Cope With Grief