Articles

by Nancy Bernshttps://www.nancyberns.com Do you have that one person still on your Christmas gift list for whom you have no idea what to buy? And if you are like me, after you choose something, you include a gift receipt anyway. It is challenging enough to pick out gifts, but what do you give someone who is grieving? How do you celebrate the season with a person mired in pain? This year, you may know people who are grieving the loss...

borrowed from https://www.tributearchive.com Thanksgiving is a time for family to gather with one another and give thanks for all the blessings in their lives. If you are mourning the loss of a loved one, the holidays can be an emotionally difficult time; especially if this is the first year without them. Whether your loved one was a friend, a family member, or a beloved pet, celebrating the holiday may not feel the same without them there. But part of the grieving process is learning...

by Sarah Epstein LMFThttps://www.psychologytoday.com When a family grieves a loss, a barrage of different emotions, reactions, and coping mechanisms will emerge, likely at different paces. The process of grief may include shutting down, crying, sleeping, struggling to sleep, overeating, struggling with appetite, angry outbursts, irritability, moments of levity, numbness, depression, and denial. Some family members will want to discuss the loss while others withdraw into silence. Some will want to surround themselves with loved ones while others need more time alone. Some may find themselves in a...

by Julie Gentz Dear Brian, It’s the end of the day, and, amazing though it seems sometimes, I have survived yet another holiday without you. It’s funny, but I can make it through a day, looking and acting like I am “OK” (whatever that is in this post pandemic/post death world). But that “OK” is only on the surface. Deep down inside there’s still that empty spot — the place that should have you as a person in it, not you as...

by Maria Kubitzhttps://www.aliveinmemory.org Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck somewhere between living and dead. To be more specific, when my 4-year-old daughter died, a part of me died with her. For over a decade I’ve dealt with the pain of my grief. During that time, I’ve continually been learning how to reinvest in living a meaningful life. Yet the part of me that died is tethered to the realm of the dead. A realm that contains my daughter, the world...

by Kelly Farleyhttps://grievingdads.com I talk to a lot of grieving dads that experience severe psychological impacts after the loss of their child.  I too experienced many of the same impacts after the death of my children and it scared the hell out of me. Not long after the death of my son Noah I noticed that I had lost my drive, focus, confidence and hope.  I also started to feel things that I had never experienced before, including despair, fear...

by Eleanor Haleyhttps://whatsyourgrief.com I want to be upfront with you. This post is about giving the benefit of the doubt to people who have said the wrong thing(s) to you in your grief. I feel the need to preface this because I know many of our readers have been treated poorly by friends and family since the death of their loved one. If this is you, I assure you I don't want to minimize your experience. I know people can be...

by Nancy Bernshttps://www.nancyberns.com When Christina was a teenager, her mother and several younger siblings died in a car accident. During the first week after her mom died, Christina and her remaining siblings would go through their mom’s closet and smell the familiar perfume on her clothes. Christina recalled, “She was a nurse and worked evenings so she had a robe that she always got ready in. It smelled like her perfume and it always smelled like that. So right after...

By Molly Allen   There is so much excitement that comes from planning your wedding, from choosing your venue and décor to selecting pretty blooms and delicious food. At the same time, if there are loved ones who have passed away and won’t be present for your special day, it can also feel tough. Saying "I do" without someone special present is difficult. "Feeling the absence of a loved one on such a monumental day can definitely add to the weight of an already emotional...

by Hava How do you plan a wedding without your parents? That is one of the toughest questions I’ve had to face when planning our wedding. My mother died of breast cancer a decade ago, and my father died of a brain tumor last year. I knew that I wanted to honor them in some way, and the only way to do that was to integrate them into the wedding: the ceremony, in speeches, and in my mother’s wedding dress. Planning a...

by Team Mindsumhttps://www.mindsum.app Disney has been entertaining us for generations with its family-friendly animations that people of all ages can enjoy. Many of its films pull on our heartstrings and teach us important messages but one film at the top of that list is their 2015 animated, instant classic, Inside Out. Inside Out follows the story of a young girl, Riley and her parents as they move away from their hometown due to their father's work. They move to a...

by Caitlin Harperhttps://mywellbeing.com/ask-a-therapist/toxic-positivity-and-mental-health As wonderful as looking on the bright side twenty-four hours a day might sound, toxic positivity is actually detrimental to our mental health. While hope and positivity are important, like everything else, there must be a balance. Here is some insight from our community of practitioners about toxic positivity, its impact on our mental health, and what we can do instead. I still remember when, sharing a bad experience with a friend, she cut me off and...