Ongoing World Grief

Yesterday October 7, 2024 marked one year of Israel's war in Gaza. Many people are displaced and their lives completely rearranged. Whether you have a personal connection directly to someone living in the Middle East, it impacts your friends, or you provide support or relief services to the area, the war brings grief. 

The Ukraine has been fighting Russia's invasion and attacks for three years now. People losing those they love, watching their land get demolished, losing animals, and loss of their daily life. The grief mounts.

Politics aside there is a world-wide impact of this war, and there is grief on all sides as well as those watching.

It's common to go toward the intellectual here or even the generational, arguing what's right and wrong. But again, these are arguments for the head. Grief is not about a broken brain. It's about a broken heart.

The other common tendency is to compare grief, decide yours is less than or less direct than another's grief, and bury your feelings. 

Everyone has a right to grieve over war. Even if it feels far away from you, or someone "has it worse," you have a right to grieve.

Some grief might be direct over death or loss of relationship and others can be less obvious but more persistent.

You might be grief on several levels, too: anger at a higher power, distrust of others, losing hope, loss of sense of the world "getting worse," and a change in some personal relationships. 

The key is to allow yourself time to feel the feelings, not stuff them down. Acknowledge how the feelings impact your life and your heart. Voice your feelings to another safe person for the sake of being heard, not being fixed. And allow yourself to adjust to the new way life.

The most important thing to remember about grief is to not handle it alone. Grief doesn't just get better with time. We don't just "get past it." We have to actively process it and get help adjusting to our new reality, without losing our heart or our hope.

Much Love, 
Laura

P.S. If you want to offer safe, ongoing, affordable grief groups for the healing and mental health of your workforce or community, please contact us to help your people start healing right away.