Processing Grief During the Holidays
The holidays can sometimes bring a mixture of emotions. Many external sources are
encouraging you to get into the “Holiday Spirit” but this is not easy to do when you are
experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one, marriage, job, or another significant life
transition. Here are a few ways to process some of the emotions that can accompany these
experiences.
Connect
Talk about your feelings related to loss. You can discuss these feelings with a friend, family
member, or counselor, or consider joining a support group for processing grief. Expressing
these thoughts can help you better move through and understand the barrage of emotions that
you feel as you process your grief.
Write
Journal about your feelings of loss. Let this be an outpouring of your emotions so that you can
get these feelings out of you. Don’t worry about grammar or form, let your thoughts flow about
your experience.
Reflect
Read about how others have processed and moved through grief and loss. You do not have to
reinvent the wheel. Draw from the experiences of others who have traversed the chasms of
grief and used it to step into a new and better stage of their lives. Here are a few resources you
may want to consider reading, Think You’ll Be Happy: Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace,
and Gratitude, by Nicole Avant, or Bitter-sweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make us Whole, by
Susan Cain.
Schedule an Appointment for Therapy with Alicia Francois
If you would like more support around processing and moving through grief and loss, please
click here for more information.