When Morning Breaks: Lighting the Way Through Grief

""Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." -Leonard Cohen Grief is the shadow cast by love. It arrives uninvited, often when the flame of life dims or disappears altogether. In those moments, the world can feel unbearably dark. But even in the deepest night, a candle can be lit bringing a flicker of hope, a treasured memory, and a reminder of how to live fully, because of them."

"Grief is not a problem to be solved but a process to be lived. It encompasses sadness, numbness, anger, confusion, and even relief. It's dynamic and non-linear, shaped by relationships, beliefs, and cultural rituals. Most people are resilient. In one study, 68.2% of bereaved individuals showed little or no depression six months after loss (Maccallum et al., 2015). Yet for others, grief becomes prolonged or complicated especially when trauma or moral injury is involved."

"Mourning Complex Relationships Relational trauma can distort our ability to grieve. Childhood abuse, betrayal, or neglect may leave us mourning not just the person, but the safety, trust, and love we never received. Judith Herman and Janina Fisher describe how the body splits off parts of the self to survive unbearable emotions. Grieving such losses means integrating anger, sadness, and even indifference without shame."

Grief is a natural, dynamic, and non-linear response to loss that includes sadness, numbness, anger, confusion, and relief. Most people show resilience; one study found 68.2% of bereaved individuals had little or no depression six months after loss (Maccallum et al., 2015). Grief can become prolonged or complicated, particularly when trauma or moral injury is present. Relational trauma such as childhood abuse, betrayal, or neglect complicates mourning by adding losses of safety, trust, and love. Body-based dissociation can develop to survive unbearable emotions. Integrating anger, sadness, and indifference without shame and offering compassionate witnessing can facilitate healing.

Read at Psychology Today