1. Prioritise
Grief touches every aspect of our lives and can make the basic everyday tasks more difficult. Often this can leave us feeling overwhelmed, discouraged and frustrated.
Try to simplify them if you can. Make a list of all your responsibilities and put them under these three headings:
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Non-negotiable: these are essential tasks but are there ways to simplify them? For example, you need to buy food, but could you shop online and have it delivered at a time that suits you?
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Negotiable: can you delegate less crucial tasks to someone else? Maybe you could have someone clean your house, handle the ever-growing ironing pile or mow the lawn. If people offer to help, try to say yes!
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Removable: When grief leaves you feeling stretched and drained, taking on extra tasks can add even more stress which can affect our health. There are probably some things that you can say no to, and that’s OK.
2. Remember them
We might fear that we need to leave our loved one behind and ‘move on’ as we enter a new year. But that’s absolutely not the case!
We prefer the term ‘moving forward.’ This indicates that as we go on, we carry them with us in our hearts and memories and continue to honour them.
Each grief story is unique to the person living it, and we need the space to do this at our own pace and in our own way. Light a candle, raise a toast or do whatever you feel is right as you remember your loved one at key moments this year.
3. Find gratitude
Being grateful for what we
do have can help us find glimpses of hope in the midst of sorrow and pain.
You could write down three things every day that you are thankful for or maybe three positive things that happened that day.
It might sometimes feel like a struggle to find anything but write down even the smallest things on those days.
Entering the new year can be daunting, but these simple things can help us as we choose to plan and move forward into another year.