I’ve just been thinking about this topic a lot lately of the lack of clarity from the result of grief of losing somebody, and I’ve been talking to a lot of people, and what I’ve noticed this common pattern of is people having a lot of thoughts around their loss, and there are so many thoughts, they’re overwhelming. And those thoughts really don’t go anywhere, except they get shoved down deep into your brain probably, or somewhere into your psyche, but what happens is they just keep building up, building up, building up, and that’s where you develop anxiety and a lot of that kind of stuff. But I thought I’d just share three easy creative ways to get those thoughts and those feelings out of you because they have to come out somehow, right? Otherwise, it’s a pressure cooker.
Full transcript below:
1. Write in a Journal
So the first one would just be writing, and I think a lot of you probably start writing, or maybe you do it once after someone passes away, but then you get too busy and you’re like, “Ah,” you get out of the habit. So I’d encourage you to go pick up your notebook, start writing, get those thoughts out about the person you lost, about how you’re feeling, about what you’re angry about, what you’re sad about, the things that you’re missing out on, things like that.
2. Pencil Drawing
The second one would be to go get a sheet of printer paper or just some kind of paper around the house, and get a pencil and just start drawing, drawing literally how you’re feeling. It could be a picture, it could be a symbol, it could be anything like that, but literally, just start drawing. So, that creative practice is a lot of what I do, and it’s helpful just to feel something. You’re feeling those emotions in some way, and it’s transferring to this. It could be a crude drawing, who cares? You could tear it up and throw it away afterward. It’s not for anybody, it’s for you. But anyway, it’s something to help.
3. Painting
The third one would be, of course, painting, if you have any kind of paints around the house or you live by an art store, but I mean, painting is my preferred method because it’s so tactile and you can just push paint around a canvas, you can pick the colors you want, you can just do whatever you’re feeling, but again, it’s just something to get those emotions out.
4. Take a Walk
I’ll add another one in, and that’s just taking a walk. I think we really underestimate the value of taking a walk around the block, even if it’s 10 minutes, whatever it is, five minutes, whatever you have, but a lot of us spend way too much time on Netflix, and things like that, and that’s time you could spend alone to yourself doing somewhere around the block.
5. Have a Good Cry
And then I’ll throw in one more too, and that’s just going and crying somewhere. I’ve done this many times myself. I had to learn how to do it after my brother passed, but that’s also a good way just to process those raw emotions in a way where you don’t want anyone watching you do that, that’s fine. I’m not a big fan of that either. But I go where I feel the safest to do that, so go in a closet, or wherever that is, in your car, and just let it out.
Conclusion
But I think that the key point is that doing any of those things, or a combination of them, I’ve found to be pretty helpful in just processing that emotion, versus getting stuck in that busyness cycle, and then you keep making excuses for yourself, and before you know it, just everything’s difficult to deal with, and you’re a ticking time bomb at that point. Something’s going to snap. You’re just going to be angry at everything.
So, these are all things you could do, really accessible. They don’t take very long and just do it more often than once. Do it, try to make some kind of practice out of it, even once a week to start. But anyway, I hope this is helpful. Yeah, I just wanted to share my thoughts here. So, thanks.
