Aspects of Grief

Providing grief resources is one of the cremation services offered in Glade Hill, VA. When your loved one dies, the grief you experience will be all-consuming. The grieving process is not a sprint. It is a marathon.

It is important that you do not compare your grief experience to that of anyone else. Everyone grieves differently and some people require more time to process their grief than other people do. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, but it is important to recognize that there are some distinct aspects of grief that you will likely experience.

One aspect of the grieving process is shock and denial. This is typically the first aspect of grief that you will experience because the emotional force of your loved one’s death is so strong and so profound.

Even though you may rationally know that your loved one has died, you may find that your emotions have a hard time catching up to accepting and believing it. During this time of grieving, you may experience sleep disruption, appetite loss, nausea and, even, vomiting. This is your body’s physical reaction to the shock of losing someone you love.

You may feel as though you are numb. As you go through the funeral process, you may feel as though you simply cannot take it in, and you may find, after the fact, that you remember very little of it. This is how the brain copes with loss.

Another aspect of the grieving process is pain and guilt. This part of the grieving process usually occurs when the shock of losing your loved one begins to wear off. At this point, your loved one’s death will become real to you.

You may find that the pain you experience is both physical and emotional. You may physically hurt. Emotional pain may turn into guilt that you could have done something to prevent your loved one’s death or that if you had done some things differently, they may have lived longer or may not have died at all.

These are normal feelings and emotions that people experience when they are grieving the death of someone they love, and they are part of the way you process your loved one’s death. They may feel very uncomfortable at times, but you should give yourself the time to work through them.

Anger and bargaining are another aspect of grief. You may feel angry or frustrated that you lost your loved one. You may look for a cause to blame. That might be another person (for instance, if your loved one was killed in a traffic accident, you might be angry at the person who caused the accident) or it might be God because He let your loved one die.



In the course of working through this anger and frustration, you may find that you want to exchange something for your loved one’s life, so you can have them back. Bargaining is not uncommon, because you would not have chosen to lose your loved one if there could have been a way not to.

As the anger and bargaining aspect of grief wears off, you may find that you are feeling depressed and lonely because of your loved one’s death. While these may also be uncomfortable to experience, you will find that these emotions will give you time to reflect on your time with your loved one and they will give you insights about them, yourself, and your relationship together that you may not have had time to see or think about before.

For additional information about grief resources and cremation services in Glade Hill, VA, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory can assist you.