Loss is a normal part of life, but it’s one of the more difficult things people go through in their lifetime. An individual can feel a sense of loss for many reasons. The loss of a job, a close friend moving out of state, and the gradual loss of time as you age. It can all trigger a feeling of something missing or being taken.
The feeling can often be very consuming and may even cause people to go into a shell or feel depressed. This is why it is important to take steps to overcome this dark phase. It is important that you understand the science of happiness and how to overcome the feeling of loss.
Making Adjustments to Cope with Loss
It can take people months to get back to their normal routine after a major loss. Now, the effect differs from person to person and how important or significant the loss was. For example, the loss of a loved one, such as a child, can be very devastating and people may take months to regain their composure.
The first step towards recovery is to accept the loss as reality, and this acknowledgment alone can take a significant amount of time to fully recognize. It can also be quite painful to adapt to things.
Slowly, the person experiencing loss can start to step out of the dark hole. The sting of emotion gradually dulls and comes back less frequently, and the new reality starts to set in.
This doesn’t mean that resilience is a state of being positive and happy. A person dealing with grief often has a quiet resolve to move forward, and happiness may still be fleeting. However, they need to be resilient and show the ability to move ahead in life.
This takes a lot of courage, mental flexibility, and often the input and support of others.
The Connection between Grief and Resilience
The connection between grief and resilience is the distress that can refine and reshape a person’s character (“Obit Tree”, n.d.). The urge to avoid the realities of grief can be strong, and this feeling is often predictable. But when someone works through the grieving process, they allow the distress to make meaningful changes within them.
The outcome of resilience from grief isn’t to restore a person to the way they were before the loss. Instead, these experiences are incorporated into their continued growth as a person. A life-changing event with great loss brings shock and emotional upheaval. But it also brings new opportunities that may never have been imagined before the loss.
- A widow learns a new skill after the loss of a spouse.
- A long-term employee learns to market his or her work after losing the job.
- A family learns how to socialize with others after a natural disaster.
Few people would ask for heavy loss and grief into their life if given the choice, but it is an inevitable part of human life. And when a loss comes, resilience helps a person take meaning from it and move forward. The silver lining of personal growth makes grief more palatable over time.
