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My Phases of Grief
Phase One — Emotional Armor
When you lose someone or something that’s important to you, the experience of trauma will often emerge. Shortly thereafter, you get an invitation to dance with your loss and grief.
Your loss is not simply a sad story, it is a new aspect of your life that you were not expecting. Even when you know it’s going to happen, we rarely plan for loss. It arrives as some sort of psychic surprise, as if, somehow, the odds were going to be beaten.
- How do you move when feeling overwhelmed and stuck?
- How do you create a safe haven and respite from the pain of loss?
Meet My First Phase of Grief:
Phase One Is the Emotional Armor Phase. Like any good armor, it serves to protect from harm, to create that safe space for times when the mind is feeling as if it’s on fire with disorganization, overwhelm and disorientation.
Think of this first phase as the safe haven that will shield you from the tumult of the experience. A place you will revisit many times to re-group, rest and restore. Think about numbness as one aspect of emotional armor that is preparing you for the next phase in the journey. Like a knight going into battle, donning emotional armor protects you from the slings and arrows of intense emotions. You enter battle feeling…
