Coping with Grief: Effective Strategies for Healing

3. The First Steps

One of the first things to do when feeling grief is recognize that it’s normal. Almost everyone experiences grief following a loss. Different cultures and societies grieve differently, but nobody should ever feel pressured to grieve in a manner that isn’t comfortable. If a person needs to grieve loudly and openly, that’s perfectly normal. On the other hand, some people may need to go about their day to day activities and grieve internally -- and this also ok. It isn’t a matter of learning which emotions to suppress or subdue, but rather allowing the grief to come and go naturally. Pressure to grieve a certain way can prevent a person from ever properly learning to live with the loss.

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