The New Year and Grief
Look, Feel, Listen… Observe
The date on your phone says it’s a new year, a new measurement of time since your loss… harsh. You know it’s just a number, but why is it unsettling? Perhaps before grief struck, the New Year was little more than a marker. Now, this emphasis on the passing of time, magnified by the unsettled condition of the world around you, numbs, hurts, confuses you. Or maybe you just can’t put your finger on what this feeling is.
As a survivor of trauma, like the loss of a beloved, a debilitating illness, or any circumstances or losses that you consider to be a grief moment, be aware that certain days or months of the year can provoke depression, anxiety, or some resonance of emotional reactivity. The New Year holiday puts pressure on what is really just another day, week, month, and year for that matter.
Martin Abegglen — Flickr
Resolve to Look, Feel, and Listen
There is absolutely no reason to let anyone, or any corporation drunk on the New Year holiday season, tell you how fast or slow you need to grieve. Perhaps you are in the middle: not at war with “New Year resolutions,” but also not for taking advances on the future self…
