Grief can be a difficult state to battle in the aftermath of someone close to you passing away. At times, it can feel like mustering up the motivation to go about your daily life is akin to hiking Mount Everest. Though it can seem like an uphill battle, managing grief is possible.
Resuming your typical schedule and easing back into a routine can help you manage your grief healthily and sustainably. While some days will be harder than others, the longer you keep at it, the easier it will become. Understanding some practical ways to rise above grief and continue your life can be helpful for getting your life back to normal. Here are some tips to resume your daily life after battling grief.
Get a Companion Animal
If you’re dealing with grief, getting a furry friend is probably the last thing you’re thinking about. When it becomes difficult to take care of yourself, taking care of another living creature can seem like a distant and unnecessary process. Though it may not seem obvious, having a companion animal can help you manage grief more effectively and sustainably.
When dealing with grief, many people just don’t feel ready to talk about their feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Typically, grief doesn’t make people feel like talking at all. With a companion animal, such as a dog, you don’t have to. These creatures can provide you with unconditional, non-judgmental, and non-verbal love.
Sometimes, being in the presence of an animal that loves and depends on you can be an incredibly healing process. Though you may not feel like getting out of bed to take of yourself, you’ll likely do it for the sake of your companion animal. Though this may seem small, it acts as motivation for you to get up and start going about your day.
Daily Life After Battling Grief
For example, if you have a dog, taking them on walks forces you to get out of the house and get some exercise. While this may not mean your life has completely returned to normal, doing these things will mean that you’re starting the process of managing your grief.
If you’ve lost a loved one, you’ll understand just how traumatizing the whole ordeal can be. Unfortunately, trauma can be tricky to get rid of, and it’s not an overnight process to do so. When it comes to trauma, studies have actually shown that companion animals can help you decrease the symptoms of trauma.
If your battle with grief has been riddled with frequent symptoms of trauma that make it hard to live your everyday life, a companion animal can help you overcome these feelings bit by bit.
Start a Journal
While dealing with grief, normal, everyday actions such as cooking, eating, and cleaning can seem difficult. As such, starting a new habit such as journaling can seem even more difficult. Though this may be the case, starting a journal can help you work through your grief in a number of insightful and meaningful ways. Writing a journal has been shown to help people dealing with all types of grief ranging from traumatic grief as a result of national trauma to delayed grief as a result of losing a loved one.
Writing things down can act as a form of emotional catharsis while also helping you formulate your thoughts into more coherent and rational ideas. In addition, writing a journal can offer you a safe space to truly express how you’re feeling if you’re not ready to share it with others yet.
This being the case, writing a journal could help you get to a place where you’re ready to start sharing your grief with those close to you and professionals, which can have a significantly positive effect on your ability to manage grief.
Daily Life After Battling Grief
It’s important to understand that you don’t have to immediately start spilling your guts in your journal. If you’re not ready to talk about grief and the emotions that you’re feeling — that’s ok. In fact, it can be a good idea to start simple. Start by writing out what you plan to do that day or about a show you recently watched.
What’s important is that you start a habit of sitting down and getting your thoughts onto paper. Soon enough, you’ll be able to start jotting down things about your experience of grief which, in turn, will help you manage your grief and feel more motivated to return to your daily activities.
Start a Routine
When grief hits you hard, it can be difficult to even get out of bed in the morning. The draining feeling that can come as a byproduct of grief can even make it difficult to keep up with normal hygiene activities such as brushing your teeth and showering. A way to combat these feelings and make sure that you’re doing everything that you need to in order to live in a healthy and sustainable way is to create and stick to a routine.
While routines can be somewhat difficult to create, once you get into the groove of them, they can offer you structure and a foundation upon which you can heal and begin to better manage trauma and grief. While there are plenty of lofty goals that may come to mind when thinking about amazing routines, such as running five miles or reading a book or day, it’s important to remember that you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel with your routine.
Your routine should start out by being simple. All you’re trying to do is create a series of actions that takes the mental work out of doing your daily activities and chores.
Daily Life After Battling Grief
For example, your routine could be as simple and basic as getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, going for a walk, cook a meal. While this doesn’t seem like much, being able to stick to a daily routine will help you feel better and more in control of yourself.
The reason it’s important to start with a simple routine is that you want to be able to stick to it consistently. If your goals are too lofty, it can be difficult to be consistent. Once you’ve mastered a simple routine, that’s when you can start adding more difficult and stimulating tasks to your list. These could be things like an hour of exercise, a walk in the park, or a session of meditation.
A routine is a way of doing things even when you feel demotivated by grief. The act itself of doing these things will help you learn how to push through grief and manage it even when you don’t necessarily feel motivated to do so.
Spend Time with Others
Oftentimes, when people experience grief, they tend to want to isolate themselves. While it’s ok to have some alone time to process your emotions, too much can actually exacerbate your experience of grief and make it more difficult to manage. While it can be helpful to express your thoughts and emotions to others, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to do that right away. Just the act of being around others will help you feel better and manage your grief more effectively.
It can be helpful to schedule times to be around others. Whether this is meeting a neighbor for a morning walk, having coffee with a friend, or going out to dinner with family, these experiences will help remind you of what normalcy feels like. The more time that you’re able to spend with others, the less likely you’ll be to fall into feelings of despair, loneliness, and depression.
Daily Life After Battling Grief
Getting over the initial hurdle of wanting to be alone can be difficult. However, the more you’re able to break out of this feeling and force yourself into social situations, the better equipped you’ll be to manage your grief. Being around others can instill in us the sense of being a part of a group.
It can also remind us that we are loved when we’re going through difficult situations — as such, being around others can be a significant and impactful practice that has the power to lessen symptoms of trauma and increase your ability to manage grief and resume your daily life.
Express Yourself to Others
While this doesn’t have to be right away, there will come a time when you should express your feelings, emotions, and experiences associated with grief to others. While you should enlist the help of a grief counselor or mental health specialist, it can also be cathartic and meaningful to share your thoughts and emotions with friends, family, and loved ones. By doing this, you’ll feel less alone while also having a burden lifted off of your shoulders.
Sometimes, expressing your thoughts about grief can be difficult because it makes the situation of having someone close to you pass away feel more real. While the reality and gravity of the situation can be difficult to face, doing so can ultimately allow you to get back to your daily life more easily. You can start small by sharing small bits of how you’re feeling and gradually work your way up. This way, you won’t feel overwhelmed the first time you start expressing your emotions to others.
Daily Life After Battling Grief
If you find it easier to write things out, it can be helpful to write down your thoughts and then share them with others. This way, you don’t have the added pressure of feeling on the spot while sharing your experiences. The truth is, whatever way you feel comfortable expressing yourself to others is how you should start. Getting over the initial hurdle will make it easier to express yourself more consistently and sustainably.
It can also be important to get into a habit of frequently sharing your emotions rather than having just one singular cathartic experience. Professionals such as therapists and mental health counselors can be great resources for this as they are people whose job it is to listen and help you through your struggles. Meetings with groups of people who have lost loved ones can be another great resource that allows you to express yourself regularly.
However, you choose to find a practice of consistently letting out your emotions and expressing yourself to others. It will be sure to benefit your mental health and help you better manage the grief that you’re feeling.
You’re Capable of Getting Through This
Grief is one of the most difficult experiences that a human can go through. While it’s not always easy to look at the bright side while you’re in the middle of it. The truth is that there’s hope on the other side and you’re more than capable of managing your grief. By taking some simple yet powerful steps. You can start your journey of managing your grief sustainably and resuming your daily life.