Bereavement Support In Orinda City, California

Grief counselling helps people cope with the loss of a loved one. A grief counsellor can help you develop coping mechanisms. Grief counselling allows bereaved persons to express their emotions and find methods to cope.

Adults and younger children all have different reactions to bereavement. Knowing how to deal with grief in a healthy way will provide you with valuable resources to work through this difficult and sometimes frightening experience.

Grief: An Overview

Grief in a person who has lost a loved one is unique to each person who goes through it. Remember that grief doesn’t stay forever; it ebbs and flows depending on how long it’s been since you lost someone and whether you’re experiencing something that reminds you of them.

What to Expect in Terms of Emotions and Behaviors?

Because you may have never experienced a loss before, the emotions and thoughts that may arise can be frightening. Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, problem sleeping, wrath, numbness, tiredness and difficulties concentrating are all possible symptoms.

Dealing With Strong Emotions

You can also find yourself withdrawing from friends and family members because you want to be with the person who has died. These sensations and feelings, however unpleasant and distressing are perfectly normal and to be expected after a loss. If the severity of your sentiments does not diminish with time and you have thoughts or urges to hurt yourself or others, contact a trusted adult, a crisis line or the police right at once. To protect your safety, you must continue to check in with yourself and track your feelings.

What To Do If You Have A Sudden Bereavement Attack?

Young adults are far more likely to experience sudden grief, which can result in some very challenging and painful sensations. If you’ve just lost a parent, a sibling, a friend or a mentor, you may be shocked and dismayed and you may find it difficult to return to your normal routine. Physical symptoms like shaking may occur and you may feel as if the world is unfair and/or unsafe. All of these ideas and sensations can leave you unsure of what to do or how long your reactions will endure. Remind yourself that what you’re going through, both physically and mentally, is completely normal. Grief after a sudden loss can be devastating and it may take some time to feel like yourself again. Instead of ignoring your feelings, be gentle with yourself and attempt to discover healthy ways to release them.

It’s vital to remember that grieving is OK and normal no matter when or how you do it. If you require extra assistance, you should seek professional help, join a support group, speak with friends or relatives and find methods to commemorate your loved one. Even though your loved one’s death was expected, telling family members after they’ve departed doesn’t make it any easier. Grief takes time to heal. It can become a little crazy. Everyone grieves in their own unique way but you don’t have to go through it alone.

Community members can access a number of free bereavement support programs, including support groups, one-on-one help and community resources, through Melodia Care Hospice.

Identify Emotions to Cope

Connecting to yourself, acknowledging your feelings and delving deep into their meaning is one of the many challenges to overcome during the grieving process.

What Teenagers Might Go Through?

You may be experiencing greater depression, numbness, outbursts of fury and general tiredness. You may also have a stronger desire to sleep than usual. Sleeping more is a frequent reaction that some children and teenagers have after experiencing anything unpleasant or extremely uncomfortable.

How To Recognize Emotions?

Begin recognizing your emotions when you have adequate privacy, time to sit with your feelings and time to decompress. This will vary by person, so give yourself more time than you think you’ll need simply to be cautious while trying this out. Identifying and sitting with your feelings, while it may seem stupid, is an important aspect of the grieving and loss process. Keeping your emotions buried simply adds to your mental and physical stress. To begin with, try these things:

Close your eyes and visualize the person you’ve lost.
Take a few deep breaths and concentrate on how your body feels.
Visualize your breath flowing to the parts of your body that are hurting.
Do so for as long as you feel comfortable and keep in mind that some soreness is typical at first.
Allowing yourself to feel helps you process and release your feelings, which may help to reduce the intensity of your grief over time.
Spend some time performing a grounding practice like progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness or deep breathing when you’re ready to stop.

Remember that it’s perfectly normal to fight and allowing your emotions to flow freely. Many people have been taught to suppress their emotions and have built barriers to prevent their feelings from being expressed.

Caregivers and hospice patients both benefit from counselling. Hospice patients can benefit from counselling to better comprehend their sickness. They can assist you in coping with the emotional effects of the sickness or grieving, as well as alleviate any anxieties that you may have.

Read Grief-Focused Literature

Literature devoted to sorrow might help you feel more understood while also providing insight into the healing processes. This may provide you with a sense of validation and help you feel less alone in your situation. While this will not alleviate your agony, knowing that others have gone through similar situations can provide a sense of relief as well as knowing what to expect as you progress through the recovery process.

Self-Check While Grieving

Even when grieving, many people go on sleep mode. Knowing how to self-reflect might help you better understand your emotions and where you are in the bereavement process. To self-check:

Try to focus on how you feel, how deeply you feel it and where you feel it in your body.
Imagine your ideas as text bubbles flying away and that you are only there to observe, not act on their meaning.
Tracking your emotional intensity on your phone or in a journal might help you understand your emotional patterns during the grieving process.

Process Scheduling

It might be comforting in times of shock and pain to set a timetable for processing grief-related feelings. While emotions may come and go for some, others may feel stuck. Finding time to process what you’re going through can be difficult with extracurricular activities. This doesn’t have to take hours every day but rather a few minutes as often as you can. This new self-care ritual may become a favorite way to let go of pent-up feelings. To psychologically shift, do something particular at the start and end of your scheduled time. This can be:

Close or open a bedroom door.
Moving from one area of the room to another, like the couch to a window seat.
Going from an empty locker room to a busy gym.

Breathing Exercise

Grounding exercises can also help you feel more in control as sorrow can bring up feelings of self-disconnection. Emotions are physically felt and some are difficult to articulate. When you feel tension or a sudden shift in your body, attempt to focus inward and treat it. An easy grounding exercise:

Sit on a chair or on the floor.
Soak in the beauty of nature.
Put your palm on your stomach and feel the breath rise and fall.
Sit back and study your ideas.
Keep focusing on your breath.

Keep a journal of your emotions, both before and after the activity.

With practice, you’ll be able to identify your emotions more quickly, know which grounding activities work best for you and how long it takes your mind and body to settle down. Increasing your emotional intelligence and insight will help you to identify and meet your personal and interpersonal needs and goals.

No one understands your situation better than you. There are several methods to connect with folks who can help you if you are experiencing overwhelming emotional intensity, thoughts of killing yourself or others or loss. Teachers, caretakers, parents, family members and counsellors can help when friends are unable or unwilling to help. If you’re not comfortable expressing that you need help, call a crisis or suicide hotline.

An experienced grief counsellor or therapist can you navigate through this difficult time with support and guidance. Grief counsellors can help you recognize and release emotions.

Structured exercise programs in our hospice care can improve physical functionality and wellbeing as well as reduce fatigue among patients in palliative care settings, according to evidence from palliative care patients.

Factors Affecting Grieving

Among the things that influence a person’s grief symptoms, severity and duration are:

Context, beliefs and grieving practices.
Types of loss (death versus divorce, job loss or loss of physical abilities).
The deceased’s relationship.
How they died?
Adaptability, resilience and perspective.
Pre-existing vulnerabilities such as previous losses or a psychological illness.

The Grieving Process

The five phases are:

Emotions, sentiments and even actions are dull or suspended in denial. There may be astonishment, incredulity or surrealism.

Anger at the departed, God, loved ones, caregivers and others is normal during grief. It can awaken a person from a state of denial, provide an outlet for emotions and revitalize the mourner.

When death looks imminent, people may bargain to delay it. For example, pledging to do good deeds or change negative habits in exchange for God’s mercy. There may be similar promises made after death. Guilt and blame are potent negotiating chips.

Depression is a natural reaction to the stress of a great loss. Like denial, it’s a strategy of coping by withdrawing from overpowering emotions. Symptoms include loss of appetite, insomnia, fatigue, depression and despair.

Our compassionate hospice team believes in a patient/caregiver-centered approach to care, taking the time to learn about your goals, purpose and requirements so that we may provide products and services that are tailored to your specific needs.

You can reach us at any time by contacting us through our 24/7 online customer support chat or by calling 1-888 635-6347 (MELODI-7) Melodia Care Hospice.