Grief is something that everybody goes through at some point in their life, but nobody can truly prepare for it. Although you may have witnessed others in your life go through a period of grief, dealing with it yourself is a whole other ball game.
The holiday season is a time for gratitude, celebration and togetherness. For a person in grief, though, the holiday season can only emphasize feelings of loss and devastation. The holiday seasons are shared with the people we love, so if you’ve recently lost a loved one, their absence can be felt even more strongly.
If you can relate to these circumstances, the most important thing to remember is that you are not alone. In this post, you’ll learn three ways to deal with grief in the holiday season. There’s no quick fix to grief, but there are healthy coping mechanisms that allow you to get through the day more easily.
Lean Into The Time You Have With Loved Ones
Although you are feeling the absence of a particular person you miss, this doesn’t mean you should isolate yourself this holiday season. Ultimately, being alone during this hard time is the last thing you need. Although you can’t spend time with that person in the way you want, you can lean into the time you have with your loved ones.
Death often makes us realise how lucky we are to have the people we love – so don’t isolate yourself, but rather try to make the most of the joy you can derive from spending the holidays with people you love.
Find Ways To Acknowledge & Commemorate Your Lost Loved One
You don’t want to spend the holidays wallowing in the loss you feel, but at the same time, it’s no good to force back feelings of sadness and grief either. Grief is inconvenient when you are trying to be positive, but it shouldn’t be ignored.
Instead, you should acknowledge the grief you feel and find ways to commemorate that person. You could go for a walk to their favorite spot, for example, and take in the small things; the colors, the weather, the memories you have of that person there.
You could also do something more permanent, such as purchasing a memorial item from Memorials.com.
Create New Memories This Holiday Season
This holiday season, why not create some new memories? There’s a difference between healthy commemoration and living in the past, so make sure while you are remembering your loved one during the holidays, you are also making new memories. Reassociating the holidays with something positive and new is bound to make this time easier as the years go by; you can strike a balance between remembering and recreating.
Final thoughts…
Experiencing grief during the holiday season can make the whole time feel awful rather than happy, but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Create new memories and find special ways to honor that person using the advice you find in this guide!
*Collaborative post