Caring for Yourself as You Grieve

Grieving Self Care

In this recent blog, I mentioned the importance of self care while grieving. This topic is so important, I decided to write more about self care in today’s blog.

What is “Self Care”?

First, what exactly do I mean by the term “self care”?

“Self care” literally means care of the self.

Grief Dependence

Like most people, I enjoy having someone else take care of things from time to time. It’s nice when someone else makes dinner, fills the car with gas, goes grocery shopping, buys tickets to an event, calls to see I’m doing, sends me a card/letter/email, etc.

For some people, during the initial period of mourning, it’s nice to have someone else make ALL the decisions, because nothing makes sense. But as competent adults, having someone else make every decision for us is not a sustainable situation long-term.

Grief Self-Reliance

It’s nice to depend on others from time to time, but we also need to rely on ourselves. For an introvert like me, in times of grief, it’s even more important to be self-reliant.

However, regardless of whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you need to take good care of yourself to your best ability at all times, but especially when you’re grieving.

Caring for Yourself

How do you care for yourself?

• Self care is demonstrating loving kindness toward yourself in the thoughts you think, the words you speak, and in the actions in which you engage. (e.g., I forgive myself when I make a mistake. I love myself. I feed myself nutritious food.)
• Self care is nurturing yourself. (e.g., I am my own cheerleader. I applaud my achievements and encourage myself when I am disappointed with the outcomes of events.)
• Self care is showing yourself grace, compassion, and patience. (e.g., I understand when I am sad and I am not able to operate at my usual best due to my grief.)
• Self care is specific to the individual—what might work well for me, may not work well for you.
• Self care is ESSENTIAL to healing.

Categories of Self Care

As I mention above, self care is specific to the individual. Following are a few categories that you might explore in your care of self.

• Eating and Drinking
• Exercising
• Solitary Activities

In future posts, I’ll delve into each of these categories to provide suggestions on how you can take good care of yourself within each category.