Are you coping with grief and loss? It certainly comes with the territory of love. Nothing compares to the pain you feel when your loved one dies. As the poet Kahlil Gibran said:
For even as love crowns you so shall it crucify you. Even as it is for your growth so is it for your pruning. Even as it ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall it descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
In fact, psychologists rate death of a spouse at the very top of a list of all the stresses one can experience. In other words, it is the most challenging thing that can happen to you. We know how difficult grief, loss and heartbreak are to deal with. What it is like to be in the heart of darkness.
One of the baseline challenges in handling grief or loss is that it tends to make us second guess ourselves. For example, did we do enough for our loved one? Were we able to say goodbye properly? Did they feel good about our relationship? Did we do the right things when they were dying? Or, can we really function all alone? You know how these self-punishing thoughts go—and they cause lots of suffering.
So here are three powerful exercises to help you process your loss and feel better.
Exercise 1: Coping with Grief, Loss and Heartbreak: The Empowering Nickname
A great way to overcome this is to give yourself a nickname that empowers and validates you! Even if you are just not feeling like you can do that right now! You can. This is just a small door that can help you move forward into…
