A Little About Grief

Grief is unavoidable. It is something we all experience but it’s not something we can plan for. There are several ways to describe it, but you have to experience it to understand the feeling. The intensity of grief depends on the emotional connection between the grieving person and the person, situation or expectation that is lost. A simple definition of grief might the following: Grief is the normal and natural response to significant loss. What might be a significant loss? Death and divorce are the two losses most associated with grief. But significant loss can be many things. Currently, Covid 19 has created a blanket of grief over the entire world. Many of us grieve the loss of what was normal. What might be significant to you or me, may be “no big deal” to someone else. Grief is deep sadness, a sadness with it’s own timetable. It often shows up when we least expect it, like an unwelcome relative showing up unannounced and stays too long. Currently, the global pandemic of Covid 19 has blanketed the world in grief. We are grieving the loss of what we knew as normal. Grief manifests in many different emotions, such as anxiety or anger; just think of the isolation and loneliness we have felt. Grief is also personal, meaning, each of us grieves in our own way and over losses that are personally meaningful. Telling someone to “look on the bright side,”  or to be grateful for what they have may be a good idea but it does nothing to alleviate the feeling of loss. In fact, it interrupts healthy grieving. The first step in grieving is to consciously acknowledge the loss.