Every day we hear of people dying.
Everybody that dies was somebody's brother, sister, child, father or mother.
And then it happens that somebody close to us dies......
We are grief stricken and do not know how to handle it - we try and act normal, but it is so difficult.
What is grief and when do we encounter it. Does it affect only our minds or also our bodies and souls?
Different people experience grief in different ways. Some people will throw them into their work, some people will pull back from their friends and family, some will lock them in their rooms and sleep and cry a lot and some people will just go with the feeling they experience every day.
In the beginning after you have lost somebody close to you you will show your grief in different ways. It can be physically which means you will cry or sleep or stop eating. You will also show or experience strong emotions and think about the person a lot - that is all normal.
Some people try to skip the whole grieving process and act as though it is just something that happened and they move on (or try to), but going through all the parts of grieving is necessary for you to find closure and really be able to accept it, deal with it an move on in your life.
Look at the different stages.
Maybe you are still in the first stage. Know that you will eventually, on your own time move out of this stage into the next, until you get to acceptance.
There is no time limit for this and for some people it can take years to work through all the stages.
A lot of times we feel guilty is we move forward with our lives, it feels like we are disrespecting the person we have lost or are afraid that people will say we have forgotten them, but this is not true.
One of the hardest things to accept about life is that "life goes on", with or without you. One or other time you will have to move forward. It does not mean you have forgotten, it just means that you have found another way to go on without that person.
It is not only when loosing someone that you will experience grief. It can also happen when a pet dies.
Most people will have a lot of sympathy when a person dies, but not everybody will understand or have a long time sympathy when you loose a pet.
This can be frustrating and upsetting to you if your friends or family do not understand that the loss of a pet is affecting you a lot - especially if your pet was like a friend to you.
It is more than normal to grieve over a pet, even if some will say "It was just an animal. Get a new one."
If you want to take your time and grieve over your pet and go through the different stages, there is nothing wrong with it. Nobody can tell you when you are suppose to feel better.
