EWG :: 13. Distracting ourselves from grief

Embodied Writing Grief Series

I have yet to meet a person who actually enjoys grieving.  It is generally speaking not pleasant, is uncomfortable at the least and often literally painful.  It is unpleasant.  No one really likes to be around a person who is grieving.  It is lonely and isolating.

So often we find ways to distract ourselves from grief.  Ways to keep busy.  Ways to focus on other people and their needs or problems.   Ways to focus on details that ultimately don't matter in the bigger picture

We'll do whatever we can to not feel the pain of loss.  The sadness.  The ache.

All this avoiding and distracting doesn't make the pain go away though.  It doesn't make the grief magically disappear.  It's still in us.  And it will come out in one way or another, whether we like it or not.

This week is about slowing down.  Putting the to-do list aside.  Allowing quiet and stillness so that grief and sadness of all we have lost to find a place to be seen, felt, heard.

Connecting to the grief of what we lost as children because of the trauma experiences we had can feel daunting.  It can feel