15 Ideas to Think About While Grieving

Regardless of where you are on your journey — whether your grieving or supporting someone who is, how you think matters.

Here are 15 ideas to mull over as you begin 2024. In addition to that, I’d like to give you a challenge to write down the five or six that you will put on a 3X5 card and carry with you over the next few weeks.

15 Ideas to Think About While Grieving or Supporting Someone Who Is

1. Grieve — the only cure for grief is to grieve.

2. Cry — there’s power and healing in a good cry.

3. Let go — when you let go, you can still cherish the memories.

4. Be empathetic — when you are empathetic, you attract other empathetic people.

5. Practice stillness — stillness helps untangle our story and live in the present.

6. Ask for help — If you feel like you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it.

7. Move forward — you don’t move on from your grief, you move forward with it.

8. Asking Why? — after a loss, it’s OK ask Why? for a while, but eventually you need to get to “What now?”

9. There are no shortcuts — the way to grieve well is to go through it not around it.

10. Tell your story — when we tell our story to a good listener, the story becomes more complete.

11. Talk until you’re done — you need to talk about your grief until you don’t need to talk about it any longer.

12. Grieve well now, grieve well later — if you learn to grieve thoroughly now, you will be better prepared to grieve thoroughly in the future.

13. Grief and joy can co-exist — it’s not disrespectful to laugh one minute and cry the next.

14. Grieve in little pieces — unpack and process your grief in little chunks, not all at once.

15. Distract yourself — distract yourself in short bursts because you’re not wired to grieve non-stop.

3 X 5 Card Challenge

Now write down the five or six ideas that resonated with you on a 3X5 card. Take that card with you on your grief journey or use it to better help others who are grieving.