Grief is part of the human experience. If you love, you will lose. And when you do, the pain is inescapable. It can be disorienting, overwhelming, and in the case of acute grief, the symptoms can even resemble something like psychosis.
In this episode of Office Hours, I explore what grief actually is, how it is lived and felt by those who are bereaved, and why these reactions—however unsettling—are not signs of dysfunction. They are, in fact, evidence of something profoundly good: the depth of our love and devotion to one another.
The aim is not to eliminate grief—that is neither possible nor desirable—but to approach it with understanding. In doing so, we can move toward our suffering rather than away from it, extend compassion to others walking a similar path, and begin to discover meaning within our loss.
Brought to you by: David Protein—The most effective portable protein on the planet.
Referenced:
• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness
• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks
• My Wind Phone (wind phone directory)
• Treatment of complicated grief: a randomized controlled trial
• On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families
• Presence in absence. The ambiguous phenomenology of grief
• The Evolution of Grief, Both Biological and Cultural, in the 21st Century
• Grief and the Search for Meaning: Exploring the Assumptive Worlds of Bereaved College Students
• Zen Koans: The Sound of One Hand
• The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions
• Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries
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