grief and death

Grief & Loss

The Healing Process: Handling Loss

Chapter 12 inLetting Go With Love: The Grieving Process discusses the issues important to handling losses in your life. Factors include, your historical coping style, the closeness you had to the loved one, the degree of emotional bond, the type of loss; it is very different losing a job and losing a spouse for example. The way you have handled previous losses in your life is important. If you swept your feeling under the carpet, a new loss can tip the emotional scales and recovery can be longer and more difficult.

On the other hand, if you have dealt with each loss as it happened in your life, you will be able to cope with the most recent loss easier and heal faster. Losing a person you have been living with involves letting go of these daily habits and complicates the grieving process. It is important to monitor your reaction to small losses, so that when a major loss occurs in your life you will have some insight into what to expect of yourself. Knowledge is power. Know thyself!