Dealing with grief

Last week, we looked at the subject on grief. We defined it and look at how grief becomes complicated when you are not healing. This led us to look at a few of the negative implications that can arise.

Today, we want to turn our attention on dealing with grief. I use the word dealing and not dealt. I believe grief is not a won battle, but a winning one. Why say so? Because from time to time, we will experience losses and deaths of loved ones, sometimes unexpected which will bring us back to the stage of grief, so we have to develop a winning edge over that.

The recent grief I can think of was when my father passed. It was a time of sorrow, stress and mourning for me personally, and my family too. As I write today, I have had closure and inner healing. Want to share a few steps on what I did. Honestly, I don’t think I truly sat down and thought of those things at the time of mourning, till I recounted some of them a few weeks ago. Hope this speaks to you, my fellow reader.

1. Music- the day after I received the news, I just played & listened to music which was a great stress reliever. Certain songs I knew by the heart started to have a greater depth and meaning to me like, What A Friend We Have In Jesus. Singing some of the songs to myself put me in an upbeat mood & positive attitude. You feel there is light at the end of the tunnel.

2. Going on a spiritual journey– I am a Christian by faith. So for me going on that journey included prayer, bible reading, meditation and worship. One of the books I studied from the Bible during that period was Joshua. There were a lot of life lessons I noted and applied. Prayer was of paramount importance because it made me serene and gave me some strength to soldier on, whilst consoling myself and my family.

3. A great support system- I had that from my family, especially the extended unit of cousins, aunties and uncles. Some friends were very God-sent in that hour. As I write, I remember each one of them. My pastor in particular came over to spend some few days with me; prayed with me and encouraged me. He did that at the expense of changing his flight itinerary, rearranging his busy schedule and unexpected cost. Flying at the last minute is costly! That spoke loudly to me. Relationships are very vital and important!

Bear in mind, I am not telling you to do the exact things I did to deal with grief. Rather, I am just sharing how I dealt with grief at a point in my life and hope it can give you some pointers and also encourage you there is a way out of the inconsolable pain you might be going through.

I dedicate today’s post to my dear mother. She handles adversity with a quiet strength and grace. This wasn’t easy, but anytime I talk to her, I am grateful to God for keeping her sane and well. God bless her!

Know that this season you are in shall surely pass. It may not seem like it. Trust me, I know!

Before I sign off, let me thank this community for promoting this blog and forwarding the articles. Last week, we had a lot of traffic on this site because of this topic. Thanks for your encouraging emails too. I have read all and responded.

Till I come your way again…

Peace & Love