Losing someone you love is quite possibly the hardest thing in life to deal with. The grief surrounding this, however, cannot be dealt with in a day. You need time to remember them and celebrate their life, and above all, some time to feel well and stable again. But if that simple fact alone doesn’t convince you, the points below will.
Grief Needs to Be Dealt with
Grief isn’t something that can just be pushed aside and thought about later. If you try to do that, it’ll creep into every corner of your life and make things feel darker and hopeless. You may end up saying things you don’t mean and behaving in ways you don’t like, as well as pushing away the people you love and hurting them in the process.
If you don’t take the time necessary to feel your feelings and start to figure them out, the effect can be long term and have a lot of consequences. Give yourself some time and space to understand what you’re going through, at the very least, before you try to move on from it.
Funerals Can Be Exhausting
Making funeral arrangements is exhausting, even when you’re working closely with empathetic funeral directors. Making a guest list is exhausting, even though you want as many people at the funeral as possible. Finding the right flowers, booking a venue for the wake, trying to write a eulogy – they’re all exhausting things that take time, effort, and a lot of mental energy!
If you take time off when you have a funeral to arrange, the process gets a little bit easier. You won’t have to worry about getting to the office on time and making sure your work is up to the same high standard it always is. You won’t have to worry about summing up a smile for everyone you meet, as you’ve given yourself some time alone or with close loved ones who know what you’re going through.
All in all, you have some space to try and relax and focus on what you’re feeling and how you’re going to deal with it.
You Need Time with Other Loved Ones
If you don’t have time for loved ones who may be going through the same thing, or may know how it feels to lose someone, you may miss out on some valuable connections that’ll make life feel much more complete. Without some dedicated time to spend with them, you may only get an hour here or there, and that just won’t do.
You need a few days off work and as many other responsibilities as you can get, and then you need to use those days to be around your loved ones. Whether you feel like someone else needs supporting or you need a bit of support yourself, this is how to achieve it.
If you’ve lost someone, take your time. Life is going to feel different for a while, and you need space to adjust.
This is a collaboration post
