Grief: What is it?
 
The death of someone you love is the beginning of one of the most painful times of your life. You feel like you have lost your anchor, you have lost direction, and nobody cares.

Grief is a natural response to the loss of someone or something of value.

We grieve the loss of relatives and friends, pets, our homes, jobs, financial security. We also grieve the loss of youth!

Why is Grieving so Difficult?
 
1. The extent of the loss: When one you love dies, you lose your dreams and hopes for the future, a friend, someone who understands you and someone who shares your past. It may take you months to understand the extent of the loss.
 
2. The wide range of emotions: You may experience emotions you have never known before.
 
3. The intensity of the emotions: Not only do you experience new emotions, you feel them with an intensity that makes coping more difficult. These emotions can erupt like a tornado inside us.
 
4. Each death is unique: No matter how many deaths you may have experienced in your life, this loss will be unique.
 
5. Lack of understanding: A grieving person will often ask, "Why do I feel the way I do?" Quite simply, most of us don't understand grief or its effect on our lives.

Five Basic Facts About Grief
 
1. Grief is a process that takes a lot of time, energy and determination. You won't "get over" your grief in a hurry.
 
2. Grief is intensely personal. This is your grief, don't let others tell you how to grieve.
 
3. Grief is an assault on the entire being. It affects you physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and spiritually.
 
4. You will be affected by this loss for the rest of your life. As time goes by, you will have new insights into what this death means to you.
 
5. Grief has the potential to transform. You will change, your values may change and you will see life from a new and different perspective.

So the grieving process is a life long process of change. If you can say "yes" to that concept, then life will be renewed. You will live and love again. The memory and the love of your loved one will continue to move you and inspire you for the rest of your life.