Holidays After Losing a Loved One

Holidays After Losing a Loved One

The holidays are hard enough in an ordinary year. After losing someone you love, they can feel almost unbearable. Everywhere you look there is cheer, togetherness, and tradition, and all of it points to the empty chair at your table. Grief and the holidays make a painful pair, because the season built for joy and […]

When to Seek Help for Grief

When to Seek Help for Grief

Grief is one of the hardest things a person can go through, and most of the time, you move through it with the support of the people around you. But there are moments when grief gets too heavy to carry on your own, when help is needed and reaching for it is the wisest thing […]

Why Guilt Is Part of Grief

Why Guilt Is Part of Grief

When people picture grief, they think of sadness and tears. What catches them off guard is the guilt. The grief guilt feelings that show up after a loss can be relentless, a constant stream of what-ifs, if-onlys, and I-should-haves that pile on top of the sadness. If you are carrying guilt along with your grief, […]

Letting Go Without Guilt After Loss

Letting Go Without Guilt After Loss

There is a quiet guilt that comes with grief that no one prepares you for. It is the guilt of starting to feel okay again. The first time you laugh, the first good day, the first moment you realize you went an hour without the weight of the loss, and right behind the relief comes […]

How Grief Impacts Friendships

How Grief Impacts Friendships

Grief does not just change how you feel. It changes your relationships, sometimes in ways you never saw coming. You would think your friends would gather around you in your hardest moment, and some do. But grief also has a way of rearranging your friendships, pulling some people closer and pushing others away. If your […]

Grief & Physical Exhaustion

Grief & Physical Exhaustion

People expect grief to break their hearts. What surprises them is how much it breaks down their bodies. There is a heavy, bone-deep tiredness that comes with loss, a grief fatigue that makes your limbs feel like lead and your whole body feel like it is moving through mud. If you are grieving and wondering […]

Talking to Family About Grief

Talking to Family About Grief

When a family loses someone, you would think they would grieve together, leaning on each other through the pain. Sometimes that happens. Often, though, talking to family about grief turns out to be one of the hardest parts of the loss. Everyone is hurting, everyone grieves differently, and the very people who should get it […]

What Grief Really Feels Like

What Grief Really Feels Like

Most people think grief is just sadness, a lot of crying and missing someone. Then they go through a real loss and discover it is so much more, and so much stranger, than they expected. The emotions of grief are messier than anyone explained, a tangle of feelings that do not always make sense and […]

Grief & Depression Overlap

Grief & Depression Overlap

When you lose someone or something you love, the sadness can run so deep that you start to wonder if it is still grief or if it has become depression. The truth is that grief and depression overlap, sharing so many of the same feelings that even experts can find the line between them blurry. […]

Grief & Emotional Burnout

Grief & Emotional Burnout

Grief does not just make you sad. It wears you out. There is a point in mourning where the tears slow down but the exhaustion takes over, where getting through an ordinary day feels like climbing a mountain with no energy left. This is grief burnout, and if you are living in it right now, […]