The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult things to experience. When it first happens to someone, they may make the mistake of trying to overcome it and get back to normal. While it’s important to work your way back into your regular life, it’s equally important to avoid suppressing your emotions, which can happen unintentionally. Be patient with yourself as it takes some people years to find a sense of stability again after loss. Three of the best ways to cope with grief are expressing yourself, using aromatherapy and seeing a grief counselor.
Find a Creative Outlet
Allowing yourself to feel the emotions you’re going through is necessary for coping with your grief in a healthy way. Ignoring or suppressing how you feel isn’t helpful in the long run. Creative ways to express yourself are writing in a journal, writing a letter to your loved one and joining or creating an organization related to your loved one. Another idea is to create a photo album or scrapbook of the person’s life. You can flip through the photo album when you’re missing them and remember the good times. Psych2Go talks about different ways people can use art therapy to feel better about things, and the many different ways art therapy can work. Some people like to also share with others the positive impact their loved one left on the world.
Try Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy can help uplift your mood whenever you’re feeling down, and there is science to back this up. doTERRA explains that an aroma can hit the receptors in our noses and immediately go into the brain, changing our thought process and moods. Sometimes we tag a certain emotion, like feeling good, with a smell. When we are feeling bad and we reach for that smell again it brings us right back to feeling better because of that association and the immediate response our brain has to that smell. Browse essential oils and pick your favorite scents. Common essential oils that people have found helpful include rosemary, sweet marjoram, vetiver, jasmine absolute and cinnamon leaf.
Attend Grief Counseling
There are five stages of grief a person goes through, and they are not necessarily in the same order as for someone else. Good Therapy explains that grief and loss affects people differently, but there are a couple emotions that people almost always go through.That’s a lot to go through emotionally, so you may find it helpful to get grief counseling. A grief counselor specializes in helping people process grief and return to their daily lives in a healthy way. Grief counselors will know of many ways to help you handle the struggles you’re going through. If you don’t have a support network, it’s even more imperative that you seek grief counseling in order to receive that support.
Expressing yourself and taking the time to go through the grieving process is essential for healthy resolution of grief. If you’re not able to take time away from work and daily responsibilities, grief counseling is necessary to prevent unresolved issues that may resurface in the future.
If you recently lost someone, making sure everyone knows can be a challenging and stressful experience. That’s why MyObits has tried to streamline the process as much as possible, making it so you don’t have to worry about it, and it will be seen by as many people as possible.
