Working through the grief process and allowing it to run its natural course is what needs to happen in order for a person to truly realize that he/she can be happy again. For some people, it takes a long time to get to the stage of grief that involves hope and a willingness to be happy again.
It's OK to live a happy life even after the death of someone you love. To live your life fully, even in the presence of sadness, can be a lasting tribute to the person who died. Maybe, just maybe, you allow your grief and sadness to heal you and change who you are so that you become a happier, more balanced you.
With wisdom and support, a widow can doubtlessly survive the grieving process. It is always possible to move forward and enjoy a meaningful and transformed life. Also, your late wife or husband would not want to see you miserable. They would want you to move on with life and be happy.
One of the first steps in combating loneliness is being around others who share some of the same interests as you. Try your best to pull yourself out of your grief enough to volunteer a weekend or two each month at a local charity or food bank to help those in need.
Spending time with friends and family or taking on a new, enjoyable hobby may bring happiness to a widow during Stage 3. She'll want to budget accordingly, taking into consideration some increased costs for these activities.
What is the hardest stage of grief? Depression is usually the longest and most difficult stage of grief. Depression can be a long and difficult stage in the grieving process, but it's also when people feel their deepest sadness.
The Grief she feels
The very first thing for a widow is the feel of understanding her loss. It's the grief itself. All other feelings are followed by it. It shifts her whole life to another direction.
Overall, the researchers also found that in the year after losing a spouse, men were 70% more likely to die than similarly aged men who did not lose a spouse, while women were 27% more likely to die compared to women who did not become widowed.
Although the intensity of your feelings may lessen over time, there is no timetable for how long you will grieve. The length of time is different for each person. For most people their mourning period is a long process and it can take years.
Grief can change your personality on a temporary or more permanent basis based on various factors including how profound the loss was, your internal coping skills, your support system, your general temperament, your general stress tolerance, and your outlook on life.
In grief, we need the stillness of alone time to feel our feelings and think our thoughts. To slow down and turn inward, we must sometimes actively cultivate solitude. Being alone is not the curse we may have been making it out to be. It is actually a blessing.
The standard grieving period can last anywhere from six to twelve months for it to cycle through. This applies to most cases of ordinary grief, with no additional complications coming into play.
The reality is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of a widow or widower in the U.S. is currently 59-years-old.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 61% of widows and widowers eventually choose to remarry. The study also revealed that men are more likely to remarry than women.
Unresolved grief, or complex grief, is different from normal grief in various ways. First, it lasts much longer, at times for many years. Second, it's much more severe and intense, not lessening with time but instead often worsening. Third, it interferes with a person's ability to function normally in daily life.
Beyond taking care of funeral arrangements and contacting loved ones, the first thing you should do when your spouse dies is to locate any estate planning documents. These might include their most recent last will and testament, any trust documents, records of payable-upon-death accounts, insurance policies, etc.
Widow's fire describes the (sometimes) uncontrollable and all-consuming desire for sex following bereavement. When we lose our partner, particularly when we lose a partner young, we lose a lot of things.