Carol A. Cassara
Life is full of losses. Think about this: eventually, everything we love will be lost to us.
The carefree days of our youth.
Our pets.
Our parents and loved ones.
Our independence.
And more. I know what you’re going to say–it’s depressing! don’t remind me!
Well, I have a different view. Losing everything we love is the natural order of life. And yes, it’s sad and it’s something to grieve. Also natural.
How often do we stop to grieve those losses? Not often.
Loss is something we don’t like to think about it and we DON’T think about it, unless we’re forced to by a specific loss. And then, we can come undone by the grief. Because that one loss could be the last straw, the one final loss that causes the house of cards to fall.
Which is the reason we should be processing grief all the way through life. As loss occurs. Because avoiding it, “stuffing it,” just makes it far worse. And more depressing.
As uncomfortable as grief is, it must be faced. We can wait until it mounts up and the impact can paralyze us or we can grieve it as it happens, a little at a time.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I know first-hand just how hard it is. But to live a full and healthy life, we must feel our grief and work our way through it.
There are many effective ways to handle loss. We’ve got several useful tools to help you process grief. I hope you’ll check them out, if you haven’t already.