Helping Your Heart Heal: 7 Tips for Managing Grief

Whether you’ve known someone for a year or your entire life, dealing with the passing of someone you’re close to is never easy. In some instances, the grief you feel can seem debilitating.

Experts call this complicated grief, and it affects between 10-20% of people who experience grief.

While complicated grief is a disorder that may require professional help, there are things you can do to help make managing grief easier. These steps will never replace your loved one, but they can help you accept their absence.

Read on to learn about seven ways to handle grief.

1. Allow Yourself to Feel Everything

Society prioritizes getting through grief as quickly as possible. And, while you should try your best not to let someone’s passing uproot your entire life, it’s important to give yourself time to process everything.

When someone passes away, most people feel empty and sad. In some instances, however, there may be other emotions. Stress and anger are two other feelings that many grieving people experience.

Regardless of the exact feelings you have swirling around your head, let yourself feel them. Understand that combatting grief is a process. It’s not a hurdle that you can jump over and be done with.

2. Surround Yourself With a Solid Support Circle

You might pride yourself on being a powerful and resilient person, but when someone passes away, you’re going to want to turn to others for support.

Family members and close friends are the best people to talk to in difficult times. They understand the balance between leaving you alone and providing you with the support you need.

A solid support circle will process your grief alongside you. At the same time, close friends and family won’t unleash any demands or expectations upon you, allowing you to get through the grief process while keeping you at your best.

3. Get Plenty of Rest

One of the most common side effects of grief is physical and mental exhaustion. These can very quickly impact other areas of your life, which can cause them to become further exacerbated. Because of that, getting plenty of rest is essential.

Try your best to stick to a regular sleep schedule. Set an hour to go to bed each night and, perhaps most importantly, set an hour to get out of bed in the morning. You want to give your body the rest it needs, but try to avoid becoming bedridden.

When you feel well-rested, you’ll have the mental fortitude needed to process everything you’re going through.

4. Find Time for Activities

As mentioned, rest is important, but you should jump on the chance to participate in activities when they arise. It’s tempting to lay around in bed all day, but after a certain point, doing so won’t help you move on.

Make a point to get up and get moving each day. Even if that means nothing more than going for a walk around the block, anything is better than nothing.

After a certain point, you can progress on to socializing and other more intensive activities. While these might be hard to get back into at first, you’ll thank yourself for taking the plunge later on.

5. Set Goals

Setting goals and accomplishing them is always a satisfying feeling. When you’re experiencing grief, those feelings can do wonders for you. Giving yourself goals to work towards is, therefore, an excellent idea.

While you might not have the strength to tackle massive career goals during this time, you can always start small. Set a goal to cook a nice meal, reconnect with an old friend, or just do the laundry.

Crossing these things off your list for the day will give you a sense of accomplishment, encouraging you to think bigger and continue to heal.

6. Turn to Professional Help When Necessary

If you’re ever in need of some additional help, don’t be afraid to work with a professional.

Your primary care physician is a great resource who can help ensure that you’re practicing healthy habits. Don’t be afraid to meet them and explain that you’re going through a difficult time.

You can also turn to grief counseling services for additional help. Grief counselors have the emotional skills necessary to help guide you through the process.

Interested in learning more about how grief counseling can help? Click here for more.

7. Go Easy on Yourself

It’s easy to be hard on yourself when you’re feeling down. When you’re unable to do much, we often blame ourselves and do everything in our power to get back to “normal.” Try your best to go easy on yourself.

Our lives are full of stress and other negative feelings. When someone passes away, other emotions from our day-to-day lives that we brush to the side can bubble up and get worse. All of that can take a toll on even the strongest of people.

Do your best to accept the loss, but remember—there’s no shame in taking the time you need to process and recover.

Make Managing Grief as Easy as Possible

When a loved one passes away, coming to terms with everything can seem impossible. However, there are things you can do to make the grief management process easier.

Use the tips mentioned in this guide to help make managing grief as easy as possible. While you’ll always miss your loved one, coming to terms with their passing can help you make the most of your own life.

Are you looking to learn more about how to manage grief? If you are, make sure to check out the rest of our site for more helpful guides and tips.