Living With Loneliness
You can’t escape loneliness on your grieving journey. Loneliness is a feeling of emptiness where you feel isolated or separated from those around you. Loneliness is inevitable when you are grieving. “Loneliness will be part of the grieving journey, without a doubt”
May I share: loneliness became my best friend. It has walked right beside me on my grief journey. It has taken me to some dark places (even thoughts of ending my life). It has socially isolated me from friends and family and kept me trapped in my home for days without speaking to others.
I know that you have felt lonely too. I so often hear people say that grieving has been very lonely for them.
Today, I’d like you to sit quietly and go into your body. Give yourself a few minutes to become aware of the loneliness that is living within you. Once you have tapped into the loneliness, I want you to write about it in your journal. Just keep writing whatever is coming up for you. This exercise is to feel and express your loneliness without judging it.
Don’t be afraid of it, your loneliness needs to be expressed and given a voice. Loneliness is probably one of the hardest aspects of grieving a loss because two things happen; one: those that love you don’t show up for you and two: you isolate yourself from friends and family to avoid having your grief rejected. It’s super painful being lonely and isolated.
As you go through these exercises, you may find that there is a loneliness theme on your grief journey, so remember to keep some space in your journal so you can add to your loneliness page/s.
