This subject index has been revised and updated. It now includes articles posted up until 21 May 2020.
RECENT ARTICLES, ARRANGED BY TOPIC
Coping with grief during the lockdown
Survival skills we need today are what we used yesterday
Coping with our grief and our thoughts during lockdown
Coping with new bereavement during the lockdown
Getting grief support in the digital world
Can’t visit the cemetery? Grieving at home
Living with loss: coping with our ‘new normal’
- Living with loss is living. Let’s not only think about surviving; let’s aim to thrive.
Coping with grief: Find what helps, do it, repeat
- As far as possible, let’s do more of what makes us feel better and less of what makes us feel worse.
- The rhythm of the year as we cope with grief
What next? This far and onwards in grief
- The experience of better moments in the past can help give us hope for the future. Hope won’t answer ‘what’s next’ but it does support us on the journey forwards.
The words we used to describe grief
- Which sounds better to you: Heal, recover, rehabilitate or integrate?
The intensity of grief eventually changes
- A reflection on how the intensity of grief does change. Time doesn’t “heal” grief as we will always miss our loved ones, but the raw agony of early grief and the utter bleakness that many of us have struggled with does change, especially if we do the work of mourning.
Activities and ideas for dealing with grief
- Solitude can be a good thing as we take a deep breath and reflect.
Alone in grief – finding peace in our inner spaces
- Finding our own peace within
Finding relief from the loneliness of grief
Remembrance, memories and ‘continuing bonds‘
“But I don’t want to remember” – another side of ‘continuing bonds’
- This post looks at those who have very good reasons for not wanting to keep on remembering. Living with loss does not only mean coping with the death of a person. It can also mean coping with the loss of what a relationship should have been.
Sorting out our ‘virtual shelf’ of memories
- Finding the good memories to treasure
Difficult issues
Inheritance, treasured objects and family issues
- Dealing with family disagreements about wills and wishes
- Some thoughts on coping with the sudden death of a loved one.
The defiant passion of the bereaved parent
- A post for bereaved parents and those who support them, looking particularly at the campaigns that some parents become involved with, such as the parents of Harry Dunn.
TOPICAL READING GUIDES
Pages with a collection of articles on a particular topic. Each of these pages has a list of articles and a short summary of what they’re about.
Shocked! Heartbroken! Readings for the newly bereaved
- A collection of articles especially selected for the newly bereaved who are struggling with the initial impact of their loss.
Taking care of yourself when you’re grieving
- Practical issues for taking care of yourself, even when you don’t feel like it
Memories and Continuing Bonds
- A collection of blog posts and articles on the topic of our new relationship of memory with our loved one, and includes some of the ‘‘theory’ behind ‘continuing bonds’.
The unique pain of child bereavement: Readings for parents
- Some articles on the impact of losing a child and surviving this agonising bereavement.
- A lot of people struggle with their health following bereavement. This post links to articles about the impact that grief can have on our health and ideas of what we can do about it.
Riding the rollercoaster of grief
- Different aspects of the ups and downs of our grief journey.
Grief is a type of journey – but it’s no walk in the park
- A series of articles on parallels between grief and journeys. Some are specifically about “The Way” – the popular network of “Camino” pilgrimage routes in Spain – but other routes in the UK are included. Most importantly, this isn’t really about walking or journeying, but about living with loss.
INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES
Living with loss: when a loved one dies
- Funerals and the grief that endures
- Before and after: anticipating the death of a loved one, coping when they die
- Goodbyes unspoken: Coping with sudden death
- To love & be loved – the value of a life is not measured by time
- Shocked! Heartbroken! Readings for the newly bereaved
Your life after their death
- The long road of grief & the dangers of losing hope (sorry, there aren’t 5 stages)
- Death and changing values
- Plotting the future; priorities in a grief journey
- The intensity of grief eventually changes
- Dealing with the ‘if’s of grief
- Waking up
- The Calendar of Grief
Getting support when you’re grieving
- Internet support forums – pros and cons
- Finding companionship in grief
- Grief counselling – it can help
Life strategies – some ideas for helping yourself
- A ten minute trip in time and space
- Finding calm in the rough seas of grief
- Grief and the art of reinvention
- The Soundtrack of Grief, Part 1
- Starting again after loss — can it be done?
Coping with “special days” – birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries
- Activity ideas – Coping with Christmas Part 2
- Need to talk? – Coping with Christmas, Part 3
- And so Christmas has arrived
- Christmas is coming and some people are dreading it
- Christmas is nearly upon us. How do we cope when we’re grieving?
- Not failing at Christmas
- Christmas perplexities if you’re living with loss
- At the dawning of a new year
- Getting ready for Christmas, when the one you love is no longer here
- Teardrops replacing baubles: “Say their name at Christmas”
Particular challenges
- Bereaved of a loved one with mental illness or disorder
- After death discoveries: The good, the bad, the ugly
- Grieving multiple losses
- Inquests (in England and Wales)
- The special difficulties of losing a loved one when they are abroad
Family and friends
How long is this going to last?
PARTICULAR TYPES OF LOSSES
Losing a partner
- Grief, love and life after the loss of a partner
- One step at a time; life and grief after the loss of a partner.
- Coping with the loss of a partner
Sudden deaths, including by suicide
Mental illness & those with troubled lives
- Bereaved of a loved one with mental illness or disorder
- Mental health: It’s not “in your head”; it’s actually in the brain
- Judgement, criticism and grief
- Is the glass half-full, half-empty or something else instead?
- A difficult life; a sad ending
- Death following mental health treatment
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES ON GRIEF AND LOSS
Grief and Faith
(A new series that will be continued)
They’re not here and that’s why we miss them
Easter
- Easter hopes – whispers and shouts
- From Palm Sunday to Easter: The language of grief
- Spring equinox; grief at Easter
Other
- Cover article from Lee Abbey Magazine: Grief, a Journey Through the Seasons
- Grieving “senseless” death – when nothing is as it should be
- Dreams and dreaming when you’re grieving
- Out of the depths
- The little mercies of grief
- Living with loss, but living with hope
- Mourning deeply
- Alongside one another
SOME PERSONAL STORIES
- The pausing of grief
- Profound joy, profound sadness
- The Before and After-ness of grief
- Scotland tour: Memorials, grief and love
- Pax is 38 today! Happy Birthday!
- Time to grieve, space for a breather
- Tiles on an old church roof
- The shipping forecast
My story
- Grieving for my two children (My Story- Part 1)
- The Holocaust – My story, Part 2
- My Story Part 3: Final journeys
- Two Catherines – My Story, Part 4
ON SUPPORTING OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE GRIEVING – “GRIEF COMPANIONSHIP”
Visit the Grief Companion website
