Often people associate grieving with death. I don’t think that is always the case though. You can grieve a broken friendship, your trust being broken, not seeing the fruits of your hard labor, being lied to.
It is OK to take your time to process things. To let the emotions flow. The 5 stages of grief are often discussed: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
Bottling things up, and acting like everything is OK will prevent healing and only make the fresh wound more chronic.
Healing does not happen over night. It takes time. And it comes in waves. I remember I once read somewhere that healing and grief come in waves. There will be days when you feel your grief all the time. There will be days when you don’t remember it at all. There will be days that you are doing okay, and then you are hit with your grief all of a sudden.
Perhaps multiple times during the day.
We have all been there unfortunately.
Don’t beat yourself up for not having healed by now. Healing doesn’t have a timeline. Let it flow. Being aware of your waves, and knowing that it is natural, and not a sign of weakness, will give you strength.
When a wave comes, just think, I survived the last wave. I will survive this one too. It is OK for me to feel the way I am feeling. It is justified, it is natural, it is human. I will be OK. It will get better with time. I will be stronger after this.
Whether it’s the death of a loved one.
The falling apart of a close relationship.
A lost lover.
A lost friend.
A lost ambition.
There are many reasons to grieve.
Don’t let the waves, prevent you from seeing the ocean in front of you.
It’s all going to be okay, trust me. It gets better. It will get better.