October 7 2019

This month our theme is “Self-Care is Unique.” Self-care is always important and when you’re grieving the loss of a loved one it is even more so. Grief takes a lot of energy and can feel like a heavy weight. Anything you can do to lighten your load can help. Prioritizing your self-care is a good place to start. Start with simple things like drinking enough water, getting adequate sleep and going outside every day. These activities fit into the physical and spiritual realms of nurturing ourselves. Other activities within the physical realm include, exercising, slowing down, resting, relaxing and laughing. And for the spiritual realm, try creating a sacred mourning space, beginning each day with a meditation or prayer, organizing a tree planting, and imagining the person who died in heaven. This is part of Alan Wolfelt, Ph.D.’s work on the five realms of nurturing yourself in grief: physical, spiritual, emotional, cognitive and social. We’ll talk about each of these five different realms throughout this month.