7 Areas Affected by Grief
Grief Work Begins with Your Grief Inventory for Healing
When you understand these 7 areas your grief can affect, you’ll realize why they say grieving is hard work. When a loss occurs such as the death of a loved one, it is expected for you to feel pain and experience intense heavy sadness. However, there are 4 main categories with each one encompassing 2 or 3 areas within the category to give us the 7 areas.
Having this information can help you to understand why you are feeling or what experiencing is normal when a person is grieving. There are many losses and many changes going on simultaneously.
Its no wonder you can feel so overwhelmed and at times alarmed. Take out your journal or have a piece of paper handy and markdown any of these listed below that may apply.
Psychological
Emotions
What are you feeling? Do you have bouts of sadness, increased anger, fearful, guilt/shame what ifs, could/should have?
Thoughts
Difficulty concentrating, forgetful, overwhelmed, confused, thinking the same thought over and over?
Feelings
Do you feel empty inside, in despair, lonely, even helpless, yearning for something but you don’t know what?
Physical
Body
Check-in with your body now and see if you are experiencing: low energy, general body pains, tightness in your chest or throat, dizziness, sleeplessness, digestive issues, weight gain or loss, low libido, frequent colds?
Spiritual
Are you religious, do you have strong beliefs, participate in rituals and traditions, have strong connections or are you blaming the church or the God of your understanding for allowing whatever has happened to have happened?
No faith, but have strong beliefs in life, have your own philosophy and spirituality that you can draw comfort from?
Social
Relationship
Do you have good social and family supports? Do you find yourself withdrawing or isolating from them? Are you less social than you were? Do you prefer your own company now? Is your love relationship becoming strained with more conflicts than before? Fewer friends and family members around due to a move or the family home being sold?
Society’s Attitudes
These are the myths and beliefs, you believe to be true but have never questioned i.e., it just takes time or you never get over grief are just a couple of examples. Do people avoid you, embarrassed because they don’t know what to say or they feel uncomfortable around you? You share your story but they are more interested in sharing theirs. Friends/Family or well-meaning people see you as a project in need of fixing? They avoid you because you share your story too frequently?
Download your Grief Inventory Chart and check off the ones that are applicable to you. I am sure you were not aware that a loss, could have such an effect on so many areas of your life?
You probably long for the time when you can tell your story without feeling the pain and have your joy of life return so you can live it to the fullest. Just know that you can, it is a choice. Are you ready to make a commitment to yourself and your life? If, yes, let’s connect so you can begin your journey.
Here is my email anne@reconnect-from-grief.com and looking forward to hearing from you.
