When you’re grieving, don’t let anyone tell you how to feel. Your grief is your own, and no-one else can tell you when it’s time to “move on” or “get over it.” Let yourself feel whatever you feel without embarrassment or judgment.
“Cognitive empathy” is “perspective taking” – our ability to identify and understand other peoples’ emotions.
“Affective empathy” refers to the sensations and feelings we get in response to others’ emotions – mirroring what that person is feeling, or just feeling stressed when we detect another’s fear or anxiety.
“Empathy” is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, experiencing how they are feeling from their perspective.
Some people assume that pet loss shouldn’t hurt as much as human loss. The best support for your grief may come from outside your usual circle of friends and family members, and may be able to tell you how they got through the grieving process.
Locking away grief doesn’t make it go away. Express it. Cry, scream, pound the floor, talk it out. Do what helps you the most.
If a family member has died, it is important to be honest about your feelings. Don’t deny your pain, or your feelings of anger and guilt. Only by examining and coming to terms with your feelings can you begin to work through them.
However good or bad a situation is now, it will change. Change won’t always be easy or obvious at first; if you learn how to embrace it, in the end it can be worth it.
For some, grief is cyclical, coming in waves, or a series of highs and lows. The lows are likely to be deeper and longer at the beginning and then gradually become shorter and less intense as time goes by.
Some people find grief comes in stages, where they experience different feelings such as denial, anger, guilt, depression, and eventually acceptance and resolution.