Losing someone you love is the worst experience anyone will ever go through. Sadly, it’s something that we all have to face at some point in our lives. One of the worst things about a loved one passing away is that you have so many things to do. If they’re a family member, you have to start planning their memorial, dealing with their Will, and all the other annoying legal issues that happen during this time. Even if they’re not part of your family, you’ll still very much be caught up in helping your loved one’s family plan all of the above.
In either case, what tends to happen is you’re so physically caught up in everything that you don’t have a chance to mentally process what’s happened. It leads to situations where life slows down, and you suddenly get hit with a deep feeling of loss and despair. For a lot of us, mentally dealing with the loss of a loved one is an incredibly hard thing to do. The following tips aren’t 100% guaranteed to work, but they might help some of you cope during this very tough situation.
Give them a proper send-off
As you know, accepting that someone is gone is the hardest thing to do. Even when you know they’re not coming back, part of your brain just can’t seem to let go of the possibility. One of the only ways to help deal with this is by giving your loved one a proper send-off.
Physically attending their funeral and seeing them be laid to rest is sometimes a mental relief for you. This sounds horrible, but it’s more like you can actually accept that they are no longer with you. You won’t automatically feel better, but you’ve mentally got over the barrier of not accepting that they’re gone. This is actually why a lot of people opt for cremations over burials these days. There’s a greater sense of finality about it, but you also get to keep the loved one with you at home in an urn. The fact you can customize urns with unicorns and other spiritual creatures also helps to commemorate them. Keeping the urn in your home is always a reminder that they are physically not with you, but they will always be there.
Immortalize their memory
In essence, this is the same as commemorating them. You’ve seen one idea above, but there are loads of ways you can commemorate a loved one. Lockets are very popular, with a picture of them inside. Even a little photo that you can hang on your wall, or possibly even a piece of art. Anything like this is great for helping you mentally deal with their passing. You might think it makes things worse as you’re constantly reminded of them. However, it helps because these things almost fill some of the hole that they left in your life.
Think about it, without these commemorations, you feel extremely empty – like a piece of you is missing. These little things help you think about your loved ones all the time and act as a constant reminder of them. Therefore, the loss doesn’t hit you as deeply as it otherwise would. You still miss them, but you find it easier to cope as you’ve got them with you in some way.
Talk about how you’re feeling
Most people struggle to mentally deal with the passing of a loved one as they keep all of their feelings bottled up. When you do this, it’s impossible to move on and let go of all your emotions. You never reach the acceptance stage of grief, even after attending their send-off. Bottling up your emotions is never a good idea, no matter the situation.
When dealing with grief, not talking to anyone is the worst thing you can do. You should speak to family members or find a counselor that will listen to you. Sometimes, just getting some words off your chest can make you feel ten times better. It’s a way of releasing all the mental stress and emotion that you’ve been feeling. Once you’ve poured out your emotions and spoken about your feelings, you enter a mental state where you can finally start to heal.
Listen, there’s no easy way to handle a situation like this. If you’re hoping it will all be over in a matter of days, then you’re most likely going to be wrong. Grief knows no bounds, so it can take months before you finally feel yourself again. Hopefully, the ideas presented in this post can help you get to a happier place where you’re mentally dealing with what’s happened.