The importance of grief

Much is written about grief, it is an emotion which most, if not all, of us experience at some stage in our lives, and it is our response to loss, whatever that loss may be. There also appears to be general agreement that there are five stages to loss and the process of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. A seemingly linear process against which we can measure our progress in any given moment.
 
Life, though, is never that simple. We don’t have to experience all five stages, we might believe that we have reached acceptance and then something comes along which temporarily sets us back, and the stages can, of course, happen in any order. I would also question whether acceptance is the end goal; do we really have to accept the loss to be able to move on from the grief, or is it more about finding a way to live with the loss?
 
There is one aspect about which I think we can be certain. Staying stuck, stuck in the loss, stuck in the emotion, is never helpful. We are designed to move forward, to seek more, and being stuck is in direct conflict with the pursuit of more, of better, of differently. So, accept and understand the emotions. Experience the emotions as part of a process. Follow the process to the point where you are more, you are better, you are differently. You know that you can do it, don’t you?