Self-care During Grief

Life is seasonal, it ebbs and flows without consent from us, leaving us grasping for control over anything we can. Those of you reading this are in the midst of a huge change, please give it the time and space it begs for. If we don’t allow grief its space it will take it from us, leaving us grasping for control once again. 

While we sit in our grief we can ask ourselves, “What now?” and honestly there is no right or wrong answer to that question. Grief is so individual so what might be next for you doesn’t fit for someone else. Our hope for you is that you can open your heart to this deeply emotional time. Grief is not linear, there is no right or wrong way to walk through it, however it does take action on our part.

One day you feel like you are getting some traction in your healing and then five minutes later you may feel like you are starting all over again. That is the nature of grief, it can be infuriating. I encourage you to give yourself a lot of grace in the early days. Your brain is trying to make sense of what is happening. Understanding the pieces and parts of your emotions can be helpful and bring awareness to your experience, we hope that with education you can allow yourself to sit with your intense feelings

So, what IS next for you? If you were a hands-on caregiver, there is a big hole in your life. All the time you spent taking care of your person is now free. Grief takes action, you will read this regularly from us.

So what is our first step?

We encourage you to start with taking care of yourself. 

For many of us, self- care is a new concept, if that fits for you we are so excited to give you some great tips on how to begin a regular self care practice. If you already have a regular self-care practice, maybe we can help you find some new ways to care for yourself. Awareness is a huge part of this concept, knowing you need and deserve to be cared for is a huge start.

There are several types of self care, we hope you will take a look at these examples and decide what you think will work best for you. 

Self-care creates neurotransmitters in our brain that helps us feel good.

Our brain is constantly changing. It is of great benefit to implement self-care into our day to day lives. When we do things that make us feel good or take care of ourselves, our brain releases its “feel good” chemicals and allows our amygdala to be well balanced, allowing your brain to relax. 

When we have more good chemicals in our brain we are more open to healing and growth.

You get to define what fills you up, what stirs healing deep in your soul. We all have these life-defining moments where we choose: self- sabotage or healing. We want you to open up to allowing healing. Maybe you aren’t there yet, that is absolutely okay. Just by reading this today, you have opened yourself up a little bit, lean into that.

Embrace it.

Nourish yourself.

-The Retreat Grief Support Team