It will Get Better

The Daily Reflection is a place for healing and dealing with grief. Life will get better and the pain will lessen over time. Grief is like a ball in a box, the ball gets smaller and triggers less pain as time goes on. It's important to reach out to friends for support. Listen to an upbeat song and pay attention to your emotions. Take care of yourself with a hot bath and a candle. Welcome to the Daily Reflection, a place where you can safely come near grief and move toward healing. Set an intention today to remind yourself that life will get better. This pain won't hurt this much forever. Notice your response to the statement above. Can you imagine this looming pain will ever get smaller? How can it get less painful when life will never be the same without this person? When it comes to grief, there are some losses that will never fully leave us. Most losses never fully go away. The pain does get less. I have heard it said that we grow around our grief. When my father died five years ago, I read an article that really helped me on my toughest days. It talked about how grief is like a ball in a box with a button that gets hit and triggers painful emotions. At first, the ball in this box is huge, and the button gets bumped, and strong, painful emotions are activated frequently. Eventually, this ball gets smaller and smaller, and the button gets triggered less and less. I found it really helpful to visualize the image of the grief ball in the box on my really big, emotion-filled days. I could say to myself, my grief ball is really big today, and somehow that just reminded me that it also meant it would get smaller or could get smaller. Emotion, how are you feeling today? How big is your grief ball in your box? When are you getting relief from the pain of your emotions? Action. I encourage you to reach out to friends and let them know it's okay just to call to say hi. Friends might feel awkward and are not sure what to say. Reflect. I am going to play a song called Up Your Street. What happens as you listen to this song? Pay attention to what emotions it brings up. I deliberately chose an upbeat song. Thank you for listening. Have a beautiful day and be gentle with yourself. Take a hot bubble bath and light a candle.