Looking After Ourselves

Looking After Ourselves

As you can see, grieving can impact upon us physically, socially, emotionally, and there may be changes in our behaviour – so it makes sense to look after ourselves in different ways too.

Here are some examples which may help:

• Be kind, gentle and patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to have bad days and give yourself permission to have good ones too.

• Your sleeping, eating, thinking, remembering, concentration and motivation will be up and down – remind yourself to eat regularly, try to rest and get some exercise.

• Keep to a routine as this can help you through each day. Have time with family and friends.

• Plan ahead to help to get you through weekends, anniversaries, special days and events that you shared together.

• Try not to push feelings away – allow time for them and accept them as normal. Remember we are all different and it is OK to cry and OK not to cry. You may want to find different ways to express your feelings – for example, through exercising, writing in a journal, or playing or listening to music.

• Keep something that belonged to the person and start a memory box or create a photo album.

• Introduce some pleasant changes into your life. Laugh and have fun without feeling guilty about it.

• Learn how to breathe in a way that helps you to relax.