How to cope when you miss someone
Welcome back to another blog - Today, I’ll be giving some advice on how to cope when you miss someone who has passed away, so if you’d like to know more, then please keep reading.
Coping strategies
Below, I’ll be expanding on some of the coping strategies that might help support you. It’s important to know that I am not a qualified grief professional; these tips are simply taken from my own personal bereavement toolkit.
Talking therapy
Talking is one of the most obvious forms of therapy, however it’s often the most overlooked and challenging, especially when we are feeling low.
Talking to friends and relatives about how we feel can often leave us feeling as though we are burdening them with our issues – which can make speaking up even more difficult.
Talking Therapy, however, is crucial when it comes to processing loss and trauma and I highly recommend it.
If you’re struggling to broach the subject of talking about your feelings, there are a number of ways you could do this. You could simply send a text to a friend to let them know you’re struggling and invite them for a cuppa. You could reach out to your Welfare team at work, request a Talking Therapy referral through your GP or call a confidential talking helpline such as the Samaritans or ‘Better Help’.
Samaritans Phone: 116123
Cruse Bereavement Support: 0808 808 1677
Fresh air
Fresh air can really help to clear the mind and blow away the cobwebs. Being out in the fresh air has been proven to help with sleep, encourage exercise and gets us out of the house - encouraging stepping forwards and processing loss.
Endorphins from exercise
When combined with exercise, fresh air can be hugely therapeutic. Endorphins help relieve pain, reduce stress and improve our sense of wellbeing. Exercise can also help to regulate our appetite, prevent overeating and encourage choice of good nutrient dense food.
Grounding exercises
In previous blogs, I have mentioned the effects of stress and trauma on the body. Grounding exercises can help restore calm and rational thinking. They can also help us to control intrusive thoughts and negative emotions. A basic grounding exercise that you could try is simply walking around the garden with no shoes and socks on, every day. Allowing your body to reconnect with the earth.
Stand for a few minutes and let the negative emotions drain from you into the ground below you. Pay attention to what you can hear, what you can feel, and what you can see.
Memorial scrapbooks
Scrapbooking is a lovely way to collate lots of precious cards, letters and photos of loved ones that have passed. Building a personal and unique legacy that you can read and add to on special Birthdays, Anniversaries and also pass on to friends and other family members. Scrapbooks can provide a warm and comforting space of reflection for those days you simply want to reflect on the happy times.
If Heaven had a Postcode
If you don’t like the idea of scrapbooking, then ‘If Heaven had a Postcode’ could be for you.
This unique and poignant ever-lasting memorial book, provides a guided space for you to work through simple bereavement exercises as well as document lasting memories of that someone special. Beautiful illustrated poems and riddles will hold your hand as you journey through life, love and loss and build a personalised ever-lasting legacy of the person who meant so much to you.
A tool now used by the NHS and within Schools – this flagship book could hold a special place in your heart, too.
Order today at; www.ifheavenhadapostcode.com
I hope this blog has offered some advice on how to cope when you miss someone.
For more tips, advice and useful tools to help you through bereavement come back and visit my blog again,
With love,
Sabrina x