Stages Of Grief Simplified

In this life, one time or another, we all grieve. We lost people, dreams, pets or hoefully not all the hope we had. While helping my clients, I tried to understand the phases of grief so that I can be better prepared to adjust our communication styles.

Here are five stages of grief simplified:

• denial
• anger
• bargaining
• depression
• acceptance

You can float from one to another for some time. I’ve done it myself. I’ve been stuck in the bargaining phase for longest and I switched from bargaining to denial skipping anger all together. Sometimes my anger came first.

Anger was not always a negative emotion. If it took path to acceptance, than it was used to resolve my own self issues. Depression was the hardest to beat and it was often hidden. For me, focusing on something new, traveling, finding a hobby that helps me develop new skills, working out or simply meditating and giving myself time to understand the process of healing would finally arrive at the acceptance.

My meditation involved spending time in solitude. That means, I would either travel alone, or spend days away from chores and routing. My house was messy. My utility bills were late. My friends pulled away. Nevertheless I maintained the basic function to keep floating, but I recognized that if I didn’t give myself a time to grieve, I would have never healed. When I loved myself enough, to put your myself first, my healing process was faster. Then I was able to give again.