This is another topic that has come about by chance, based on thoughts and feelings through situations and circumstances we find ourselves in.
Quite often in our topics, we relate to the fact of grief being an individual experience, but we’ve never gone beyond that statement, we’ve not explored further within that statement and what it truly means….
Please see Grief is an individual journey, Grief is an expression and extension of love which covers:
- Introduction
- Quotes: Grief is an individual Journey
- Grief is an individual journey
- Quotes: Grief is an extension and expression of love
- Grief is an extension and expression of love
- Our final thoughts/YouTube Video
© Copyright 2019 Grief Probate Journey Blog *PLEASE NOTE THIS INFORMATION IS SOURCED FROM UK and AMERICAN WEBSITES* It is also based on our own experience. *We are not experts in this field, we are speaking purely on our own experience with information sought from the internet to give further examples. *
1. Introduction
This is another topic that has come about by chance, based on thoughts and feelings through situations and circumstances we find ourselves in.
Quite often in our topics, we relate to the fact of grief being an individual experience, but we’ve never gone beyond that statement, we’ve not explored further within that statement and what it truly means.
Worldwide we are experiencing grief on a global level. Although each experience is different something that has changed for us all is how funerals, rituals can happen. The pandemic has changed this in a big way. This impacts even further on individuals’ personal experiences of their grief.
It’s hard enough losing a loved one, but when you have to make decisions in ways that you’ve never considered you’d have to (zoom links, limited guest’s, no singing in church) all these new factors can be daunting and overwhelming.
We each have our unique experiences of our loss, and we move through this accordingly to how we are thinking and feeling.
Our expressions and outlets for releasing our grief may not be consistent, one day we might be okay, the next we are not.
Grief is almost like a rediscovery of life and yourself as a person, we say this as from our experience, the loss of our Dad has had a huge impact on our lives, and we are not the same. We will never be the same, we are still trying to work out and discover who we are.
We have good days, we have bad days, we have mentally, physically, challenging exhausting days. But we also have days of joy, happiness, gratitude and remembrance of our Dad and the great man that he was. Still writing in past tense is so difficult, this is something that will never get any easier.
Another thing my sister and I recognise is that within grief different types of loss affect you differently for example:
- Loss of a friend
- Loss of a Family member
- Loss of a parent
- Loss of a child
- Loss of a loved one to suicide
- Loss of a loved one through murder
- Loss of a loved one through domestic violence
- Loss of a loved one through an accident
- Loss of a loved one through substance misuse
- Unexpected Loss
All of these situations are tragic, heart-breaking, devastating and will affect anyone going through this in different ways. Even if the loss is within a family (as with my sister and I and our Dad) you will still feel, think and act differently.
- Support from family and friends can make all the difference
- Support through counselling could make all the difference
- Support through forums, online communities can also make a difference
- Finding new hobbies
All of these could make a difference, but maybe not at all. As individuals going through this journey we can only try our best to get through taking as much self-care as possible along the way (we have a topic on: Sharing and Grief Coronavirus and Grief. We also have a topic on Counselling/Health and Wellbeing).
You could even grieve for someone who is still alive, as an example a loved one could be diagnosed with dementia, or alzhiemers, or like our Dad suffer regularly with delirium. In Any of these cases sadly you lose the person you once knew, this can be devastating and soul-destroying to deal with. (We have topics on Delirium, Delirium Awareness, May Awareness Month which covers Alzhiemers and Dementia).
When our Dad was an inpatient in the hosptial, we felt guilty about being happy, guilty about smiling, guilty about enjoying ourselves. How could we do any of these things knowing our Dad was suffering in a hospital bed, this continued once our Dad passed away life became even more of a blur with us co existing alongside it. We were existing, not living. (We have a topic on: Guilt and Grief).
Something my sister and I have become aware of is that since the loss of our Dad, we find it harder to know how to support someone who is experiencing loss, this might sound strange as we have our blog, and the purpose of creating it was to help others. We think what it might be we are too much in our head sometimes, so we are thinking about how what we might say will come across. We are even more conscious of seeming blasé, insensitive. Because of this, we do sometimes struggle, this isn’t something that felt so apparent to us until the loss of our Dad. It’s literally changed the way we think and feel about everything that we do.
Another thing my sister and I have noticed since the loss of our Dad is that we have no concept of time, days or weeks, it really throws us out of sync when this happens. As as example, something that happened today could feel like last week, and something that happened last week could feel like it happened more recently (we have a topic on Time: Angel Numbers: Number 7: Biblical Meaning Number 7).
Although we lost our Dad four years ago, we are still learning, we are still experiencing, we are still moving through our journey of our grief. For all of the reasons we have mentioned and explored, we are happy this has become a blog topic.
Please see Grief is an individual journey, Grief is an expression and extension of love:
2. Quotes: Grief is an individual Journey
3. Grief is an individual journey
3.1 Grieving – an individual journey – Care for the Family
“Grieving is the process we go through in order to come to terms with our loss. It is an unwelcome journey that all bereaved parents find themselves on. · Our”…
3.2 Is grief an individual process?
“Grief is a normal and natural process that takes work to get through. It is not easy to let go of close relationships that have existed in our lives”.
3.3 What does grief journey mean?
“Grief is a journey, whether the loss was expected or sudden, and one that requires grieving and mourning. Grief is what you think and feel on the inside after someone you love and care about dies. Mourning is the outward expression of those thoughts and feelings”.
“Grief is a response to the loss of someone or something that was important. Grief can occur after a death, divorce, illness or other significant loss. Grief can affect your physical and mental health. Grieving is an individual process and it is different for everyone”.
3.5 In what ways might the bereavement journey be different for some?
“People find different ways to express their grief – art, poetry, an angry outburst, perhaps tears, or perhaps something less healthy like drinking too much alcohol. Counselling is also a very good way of moving through the process”. (22 Feb 2012)
3.6 How does grief affect behaviour?
“The person may lose interest in eating or being social. A grieving person may also become more irritable or aggressive. Other common behaviors include restlessness and excessive activity”.
3.7 Which type of grief is not socially recognised?
“Disenfranchised grief is generally grief that is not usually openly acknowledged, socially accepted or publicly mourned”.
“5 ways to express your feelings when grieving
- “Write a journal. A classic way of figuring out how you feel, journaling can give you the time and space to explore your emotions on your own”. …
- “Write a letter to your loved one”. …
- “Talk to a friend or family member”. …
- “Meditate”. …
- “Talk to a counsellor or therapist”.
3.9 Grief is an Individual Journey – Crosswalk.com
“ (28 Sept 2010) — Grief is an Individual Journey … We enter this world without an instruction manual, and religious beliefs aside, we leave the same way. We are”…
3.10 Grief, it’s a personal journey | The Loss Foundation
“It can be very normalising to hear how others experience loss, learning that you are not alone in the events you witnessed and now try to process. However”, …
3.11 Thoughts From The Couch – The individual journey of grief
“This thing that we call grief that connects us all is one of the most talked about topics in my therapy room. Grief can refer to any form of loss as a”…
3.12 Dealing With Grief Is A Unique Journey For Everyone Who Has Loved And Lost
“25 Sept 2019 — And recognizing that grief is normal, natural and as unique as the individual going through it has led to a new, healthier understanding of” …
3.13 Your Grief Journey is Unique – LinkedIn
“(19 Aug 2020) — The grief journey is personal providing you to come to terms with your loss on your timeline. As you navigate through the challenges of grief”, …
3.14 The Journey Through Grief: The Six Needs of Mourning
“(14 Dec 2016) — Grief is what you think and feel on the inside after someone you love dies. Mourning is the outward expression of those thoughts and feelings”.
4. Quotes: Grief is an extension and expression of love
5. Grief is an extension and expression of love
5.1 Understanding Grief is Another Expression of Love | The Grief Toolbox
“(19 Mar 2012) — I had learned that grief is simply another expression of the love or emotional investment toward the one who has died. Grief is not just the”…
“Grief numbs your body, breaks your heart, and drains your veins, but grief also is just another form of love. … The reason grief is very isolating is because talking about death in our society is off-limits”.
5.3 Grief is Love – Whats Your Grief
“Grief is love. … Perhaps the most painful kind of love is called grief, which happens when the object of a person’s love is taken away with no hope for return”.
5.4 Grief is an expression of Love | The Mighty
“(14 May 2021) — For just a moment, you’re back in an alternate universe … a universe in which your loved one was still alive. They were eating cereal with you”…
5.5 Finally! A Grief Definition That Makes Sense | Love Lives On
“Heading: What Does Grief Mean? When somebody that we love dies, we feel powerful, overwhelming emotions that can be difficult to talk about. Society labels”…
5.6 Ask Annie: Grief is an expression of love – silive.com
“(29 Dec 2019) — Honor your grief. Don’t let anyone tell you how or when to grieve. You might find that well-meaning people bring up the “five stages of grieving”…
5.7 Grief Is An Expression of Love, by Annie Lane | Creators
“(27 Dec 2019) — Honor your grief. Don’t let anyone tell you how or when to grieve. You might find that well-meaning people bring up the “five stages of grieving”..
6. Our final thoughts/YouTube Video
Life is all about choices. One of the reasons we wanted to create our blog was so that there was a platform that we could direct people too. We decided we wanted to do this because:
- Not everyone is comfortable talking about grief
- We could be in a setting where it’s not really appropriate to be talking about it.
Because of these reasons we felt a blog would be a perfect way to give people that choice.
Our blog is out there for people who might come across it by chance or referral. But for us the main important thing is that it is in existence.
Grief is a hard journey to be on, like many things in life there is no guidelines or instructions, as individuals we have to try to do our best to figure it out as we go along.
It is a minute by minute process, a day by day process, there are moments when it catches you off guard. As individuals all we can try to do is do what feels right and best for us.
We hope this topic will be of use to those who read it.
Our YouTube video:
Grief Probate Journey 
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