Coping with the Loss of a Loved One and Finding Peace Again
- access_timeAugust 27, 2023
- account_circleGary Jackson
The passing away of a loved one can cause a lot of pain and grief. It is impossible to avoid these natural feelings. Every human being has to go through this and feel the emotions that come with the loss of a family member, relative, friend, or pet. However, it is crucial to cope with this tough time so that life can come to normal. The mourning experience will not last forever. And if you know the basic steps of the grief process, finding peace again can be easier.
When you lose someone you love, grief that it causes can affect you in many ways. Some people may find it extremely difficult to come to terms with their grief. For some people, life can never be the same again. But it is crucial to deal with the amount of grief you may be experiencing. Uncontrolled grief can lead to a wide range of problems including emotional and physical. Health problems such as difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite, and loss of weight may arise in people who are unable to cope with the loss of a loved one in a proper manner. If you too are experiencing pain and grief because you lost someone who you loved a lot, it is important to ease the sorrow and start looking at the future with optimism again.
No Two Losses are the Same
The amount of grief you experience on losing someone depends on a number of things. The intensity of feelings can be moderate or severe. The more intense the emotional feelings, the harder it comes to come to terms with the grief. In fact, no two losses of loved ones are the same.
How much pain and grief will possible experience on losing someone depends on:
- Your relationship with the person
- Amount of time you spent with the person
- Your previous experience of bereavement
All human relationships are not the same. If you lose a father or a mother, you will definitely experience intense grief. Likewise, you will be in great pain on losing a spouse. If it was a close friend with whom you spent several years, the loss will give you a lot of pain and stress. Many times, it is the circumstances in which a loved one died that will determine the intensity of your emotions. The more important the deceased person was in your life, the more impact you will feel on losing them. No matter how close the person you lost was, it should always be possible to deal with the emotions you experience and be at peace again.
Key Steps to Work Through Your Grief
Whether you lose a spouse, partner, parent, friend or pet, you should try to get over your grief and get your emotions back to normal. It is important to find peace again after you have been through a lot of stress, trauma and grief. Here are some useful steps you should use to cope with the loss.
Grief is Natural
After you lose someone you loved, experiencing emotions such as sorrow, grief, stress and anger is normal. No matter how strong you are, it is impossible to avoid these feelings. It is important to understand that all these feelings are natural and common. There is nothing wrong if you are in grief after a loved one passes away. Sometimes, you will feel you are going crazy. These feelings can be intense and take hold of at once. Instead of refusing that you experience grief, sadness and anger, you should actually allow these emotions.
When it comes to feelings of grief and pain, you can never label the feelings as right or wrong. Every human being experiences such feelings over the loss of a loved one and it is all part of being human.
Express Your Feelings
It is difficult to hold back the emotions that you feel after you lose someone. You can’t and shouldn’t try to restrain yourself. It is always best to express and tell others how you feel. Not expressing your feelings will take a toll on your mental and physical health. On the other hand, expressing how you feel will make you feel lighter. Then, it will become easier to work through your pain.
Express your grief and pain to God and those who surround you. Pour your soul out in prayers to find peace again.
Gather a Support Group
Losing a loved one is difficult for most people. Whether it is before a traditional burial or burial at sea or post-funeral ceremony, you are going to need emotional support from your near and dear ones. Emotions run very high until the sea funeral or ocean burial is done. But even after the burial procedure is over, you will still feel grief and sadness for several weeks, months or years.
Though you will want to stay alone, it is not always a good idea. Instead of remaining filled with grief, sadness and anger, you should be able to release these emotions so that you can be your normal self again. That is exactly why you will need to surround yourself with relatives and friends. Not just your family and friends, you can also seek the help of a therapist to help yourself come to terms with your grief. The more emotional support you receive, the easier it will become to control and get over with your emotions of grief and sadness.
Don’t Put a Time Limit on Your Grief
All of us are not the same; each one of us has their own way of dealing with a hard time or loss. There is no fixed time after which you will get over the grief and sadness you are feeling. In fact, coming to terms with grief happens in multiple stages, which takes time. Initially, you refuse to believe the death of a loved one. Then, you experience different kinds of emotions. Anger may go away fast, but the sadness over the loss of a loved one remains. Many people get into a state of depression due to intense feelings of grief and trauma.
Finally, you accept that the loved one is no more there in your life and you need to move forward with your life without them. So, don’t be hard on yourself and give yourself enough time to normalize and heal.
Rediscover Your Life
As they say: Man is mortal. Nobody is here to live forever. Sooner or later, everyone of us has to leave this world. Though you experienced deep pain and grief over the loss of a loved one, these feelings will subside over time. Definitely, there will come a time when you will be ready to move forward with your life. The sooner you accept death as a reality, the sooner you will find peace. If you work through your grief, you will be able to discover your life again.
For some people, it can be easy to come to terms with their sorrow. For others, it may be very difficult. If you follow these steps, you will find it easy to cope with the loss of a loved one and be at peace again.
Moving Forward with Doesn’t Mean the Loved One will be Forgotten
When you finally accept the death of your loved one and move on, it doesn’t mean you have forgotten the person. In the beginning, you will intensely feel their absence in your life, but slowly the feelings will ease up.
Even after several years of the death of a loved one, you may not forget them completely. The memories of a departed loved one will always remain with you in some form or the other. If the person was really close, you may not be able to forget them ever, but this is all natural and common.
When a loved one travels to another world, he or she doesn’t completely disappear from our lives and minds. It is just that we try to come to terms with our intense emotions and find a way to move forward. In fact, most people will never forget their loved ones and will carry their memories throughout their life. The deceased loved ones don’t actually leave us, but they become a part of us. Though the anger and sadness will go away with time, the memories will always remain. With the passage of time, you will gradually learn without the person in your life.
Pre-Planning the Burial Process is a Good Idea
When it comes to dealing with the loss of a loved one can become much easier, if you pre-arrange the entire burial ceremony.
Just like you pre-plan for so many important things in life, you should also try to plan for the burial and funeral ceremony in advance. Whether you want to organize a traditional burial or a burial in the sea, it is always a good idea to seek the help of professionals and plan all the steps ahead of time.
If you plan for burial by sea, key steps will include:
- Find a suitable location
- Getting a biodegradable casket or coffin
- Chartering a boat
- Choosing a funeral provider
If you want complete information on how the ocean burial or scattering ashes at sea will be conducted, you should reach out to a funeral planner such as Burial at Sea, located in San Pedro, CA.
Ocean funeral specialists will walk you through all the key steps of the burial process and help you plan the entire ceremony exactly as per your specific requirements and preferences. You can also invest in funeral expense insurance to reduce the financial burden on the grieving family at the time of burial. Advance planning will help you set the budget properly and take care of every detail in advance so as to make it easy to cope with the grief and sorrow.
Still Have a Question about Burial at Sea?
Of course, it is quite difficult to bear the sorrow and pain that the loss of a loved one brings. But life must go on, and that is why you should try to work through your grief and rediscover your life again. Hopefully, the tips and guidelines given above will help in this process of finding peace and moving forward with your life. If you plan for a full-body burial at sea or ash scattering at sea, feel free to reach out to one of our specialists at Burial at Sea in San Pedro, CA.
We provide ocean burials off the coast of Redondo Beach, Long Beach, San Pedro, Los Angeles and Catalina Island. For your free consultation, you should call our office phone number or write us an email.