Healing your Grieving Heart (for Teens)

Grief= what you think and feel on the inside. Ex: numbness, sadness, anger, regret, etc.

Mourning=expressing your grief. Ex: cry, talk about death, write



Express Yourself:

I feel nothing. I am numb. I feel like I am in a dream. It's weird.
I cannot believe that he's gone. It cannot be. This isn't happening.
Now I am lost. Now I don't know what to do.
Did I really lived this? It's just my imagination.

The concep of "reconciliation"
It takes time. May not reconciled for several years. Lives can be potentially deeper and more meaningful.
Grief is not illness but natural and necesary process.

Attend funeral-- but there won't be a funeral. I am trying to .
Keep memories of the person alive.

1. Accept the reality of the death.
2. Let yourself feel the pain of the loss. Yo need to feel it before you can heal it. Need to confront it or will lurk forever in you heart and soul.
3. Remember the person who died. Person lives through memories. Actively remember person. Use his name. Look at pictures.
***Brainstorm a list of characterists or memories of the person who died. WRitea sf astaas you can for 10 minutes then put away your list and look at it again another day.
4. develop a new self-identity. The person who died was part of who you are. Part of your identity came from this person. The way you defined yourself and the way society defines you has changed. Now you need to readjust your self identity, to reanchor yourself. ?This i sreally hard, especially if the prson who died played a big part in your life.