A Core Emotion: Grief

Grief affects us all in many shapes and forms- whether we react with sadness, anger, passivity, denial, or any form of emotion that allows us to grasp onto what just happened. Grief can happen over anything in the worst of terms. You have grief over a lost one, grief over someone you once knew becoming someone you do not know at all, grief over feeling abandoned or alone, grief from struggle after struggle, and at the core of it all- grief over a change in life. The thing is that regardless of what happens, we can not necessarily control what happens in life all the time. We can only control our emotions and how we react to certain circumstances. Since whether we like it or not, change is going to happen to all of us. It is a necessary and fundamental component of life. Without change, life would be mundane and stagnant. There would be no room to grow. Change allows us to evolve, learn, develop, and challenge ourselves in new ways and new lights. That is not to say that we can not grieve for the order of the old ways. Rather, I am saying it is okay to not be okay. It is okay to grieve since we all have things, situations in our life where the only possible and somehow normal reaction is to grieve. It is an inevitable emotion to have. As humans, at the core we each have a set of natural emotions that we deal with. I believe grief is one of those emotions. So what I’m getting down to is that you can have a day (or week if you need) to sit at home with a tub of ice cream and cry your eyes out to a beautifully sad romantic movie like Me Before You, but eventually you have to pick yourself up and move on. Grief can not be an everlasting thing. Like a phoenix we must rise from the ashes. No matter how terrible life may seem, it goes on. You will screw up at work again, watch your favorite tv show for the 3rd time (preferably Parks and Rec), sip on your favorite cup of tea, and spend time with those you love most. You will not and can not lose hope.