Tips and Activities to Cope with Grief Grief Tips

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Tips:

• Talk regularly with a friend

• Walk

• Visit the grave

• Plant something as a memorial

• Plan ahead for special days

• Allow yourself to laugh

• Allow yourself to cry

• Plan at least one thing you’ll do each day

• Keep a journal

• Consider joining a support group

• Vent your anger rather than holding it in

• Give thanks every day for at least one thing

Activities:

• Write a letter to a loved one who has died and/or visualize the loved one there to say those “unsaid things” to them and to gain closure and comfort.

• Develop a self-care plan. Even in grief taking the time to care for oneself is crucial, but this is especially hard to do when they are experiencing a lot of guilt surrounding the loss.

• Create a “remembering event” such as going to the person’s favorite restaurant once a year or having a party to celebrate their life on that person’s birthday.

• Facilitate a Legacy Exercise. Discuss how the lost loved one influenced the group member’s lives. How can the members of the group collectively or individually share that legacy with others? Have a conversation with a child about how their grandpa worked hard to start his own business, etc.…

• Plan an Honor exercise. What mattered to the lost loved one? Recycling? Volunteering somewhere? Trying new types of food? Meeting new people? Do something that will honor the memory of the loved one. It can be as simple as planting a tree that brings forth life in that person’s name or as elaborate as rallying and leading a community volunteer group in that person’s name. Whatever that person thinks will honor their loved one!