This is the last week of the 2020. What a year it has been.
Tag Archives: grief in pandemic
Christmas 2020
2020 has been messy. That’s being kind. Christmas is right around the corner and the messiness continues as we move to celebrate in ways that deviate from years past. Traditions have been paused for a year and we’ve had to become creative about how we celebrate at a distance.
Monday Meditation: Endure the Calamity
Monday Meditation: Free to Walk Away
Grief can make us feel confined, stuck, frozen in place. The restrictions put upon us during this pandemic may exacerbate those feelings, especially while grieving. Rather than look at the way in which grief (and life) have shrunk because of our current circumstances, what if you saw the things you were able to release yourselfContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Free to Walk Away”
Monday Meditation: A Calming Place
To focus on yourself, on your self-care, and on your body’s needs, you must have a calming place to which you can retreat. However, ongoing pandemic restrictions make this difficult. This is a moment in which we must adapt the best we can to a less-than-desirable situation.
8 Ways to Take Life Slowly While Grieving During a Pandemic
Social distancing slows life down for us and changes what we consider normal. We may feel lazier and more unproductive than usual when we actually aren’t. During isolation, there aren’t many chances for big or impulsive decisions, like job changes or moves. Financial matters may become more urgent, deliberate, and purposeful, especially if you’re unemployedContinue reading “8 Ways to Take Life Slowly While Grieving During a Pandemic”
7 Ways to Cultivate Inner Stillness While Grieving in Isolation
Cultivating inner stillness while grieving during a pandemic is difficult. However, finding stillness is necessary when processing grief and adapting to post-loss life. One way to approach the search for stillness is by taking a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday work and home responsibilities. When you are sheltering-in-place during a pandemic, thereContinue reading “7 Ways to Cultivate Inner Stillness While Grieving in Isolation”
Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience
Self-isolation and social distancing require a great deal of patience. We have to wait out the run of a highly communicable virus. We have to wait out a difficult economic situation. We have to wait out loneliness. If we’re grieving, we have to wait out the chance to grieve communally and receive comfort for ourContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience”
Release Guilt
After a loss, you may wonder if you did enough for your loved one, if you were nice enough, if you spent enough time with them. In their book I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye, Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair call this the “ ‘If Only’ game,” a mind game grievers play to controlContinue reading “Release Guilt”
Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls
In a state of social distancing, we are living in a type of fishbowl, and sometimes a fishbowl within a fishbowl. We can’t do anything for our loved ones who are languishing from COVID-19. We can’t do anything for our family or friends who are watching their COVID-positive loved ones and waiting, from more thanContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls”
Virtual Connections and Grieving During COVID-19
In my forthcoming book, Untangling Life After Loss: A Griever’s Guide to Creating a Self-Care Plan, I offer suggestions for how to approach grief in your everyday life. COVID-19 has turned many of those suggestions sideways as social distancing measures throw a curve into what could be termed “normal” grieving processes. An experience that onceContinue reading “Virtual Connections and Grieving During COVID-19”
Mourning in a Time of Social Distance
It’s the first full week of “social distancing,” a new term in our lexicon that basically means “stay away from people,” in this case, by staying at home. While the death toll around the world increases, it’s easy to see where an observation about grief might fit. People are dying from a new and thereforeContinue reading “Mourning in a Time of Social Distance”
A.N.Carroll 