Have You Felt This Way? | A Free Grief Response Checklist

Have you ever wondered what is grief? And how does it work?

March of Dimes gives this really helpful definition: "Grief is all the feelings you have when someone close to you dies. You may find it hard to believe that your baby died. You may want to shout or scream or cry. You may want to blame someone. Or you may want to hide under the covers and never come out. At times, your feelings may seem more than you can handle. You may feel sad, depressed, angry or guilty. You may get sick easily with colds and stomach aches and have trouble concentrating. All of these are part of grief." 

It is incredibly helpful to read a definition of grief that is so encompassing. That definition helps me to understand that no matter what I am feeling, it is normal. And that means I don't have to be afraid of grieving a certain way. It is incredibly helpful to understand that my inability to concentrate or focus or put together a coherent sentence is grief. It means I'm not crazy or suffering from a medical condition in my brain. And it is incredibly helpful to hear that at times all of it "may seem more than you can handle." That means it's ok for me to not be ok.

I think this quote from CS Lewis’ A Grief Observed is also especially helpful, he says:

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.

At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.”

Have you ever felt that way?

Grief is full of the unknowns, and those unknowns leave us feeling afraid, paralyzed, and overwhelmed. Even our responses to grief can feel confusing, unsettling and difficult to navigate.

We have been working on something that is going to help you navigate the unknowns of grief. And today we did something exciting. We opened the doors to a brand new program called The Morning Circle and over the next few days we want to share with you an inside peek at what we've created.

Today we wanted to give you this free checklist from  The Morning Circle Workbook that we’ve compiled to help you recognize a wide variety of “normal” feelings and reactions in grief. If you’re feeling unsure if what you’re experiencing right now is typical in grief, let this encourage you to embrace where you are. Print this checklist off, check off everything that you’ve felt or are currently experiencing, and then share one of those feelings with a trusted friend today.

PS: Wondering what The Morning Circle is? Get all the details here.