We’re sorry if you lost your job.
We’re sorry if you lost your money.
We’re sorry if you lost your home.
We’re sorry if you lost your lifestyle.
We’re sorry if you lost your holiday.
We’re sorry if you lost your health.
We’re sorry if you lost your happiness.
We’re sorry if you lost your loved one(s).
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a renowned Psychiatrist, was the first to identify that there are five stages of grief in her groundbreaking book ‘On Death and Dying’ in 1969. It’s now commonly understood that we all go through these same stages of grief when dealing with any type of loss.
We have all lost something in the last month. And as such, consciously or not, we have gone through various or all of the stages of the grieving process:
- Denial – where you deny reality in favour of a preferred fantasy where the loss hasn’t occurred.
- Anger – where you start to blame others or question ‘why me’?
- Bargaining – where you falsely make yourself believe that you can avoid the grief through a type of negotiation. ‘If you change this, I’ll change that’.
- Depression – where you feel the emptiness inside when the realisation hits that the person or situation is indeed gone or over.
- Acceptance – where you come to terms with your loss. It’s not a “good” thing, but it’s something you can live with. It’s a time of adjustment and readjustment where you move, grow, and evolve into your new reality.
David Kessler, the world’s current foremost expert on grief and loss, has since identified a sixth stage of grief: finding meaning and moving forward in a way that honours ourselves and others.
How have you been coping with your loss?
- Feeling anxious?
- Not sleeping well?
- Consumed by the news?
- Stocking up on supplies?
- Feeling isolated and disconnected?
… all signs that you are in the healthy process of grieving your loss.
Meditation is a profound technique that can help you powerfully deal with the stages of grief and help you to: