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I have written articles on grief before and I find that loss affects us all in one way or another. Most of us were never taught how to handle losses whether they be a death, a relationship break-up, being fired from a job, children moving out, poor health, etc.

So many of us have learned that the only way to cope with loss is to just move on and "carry on with life, as it was". As I have written in past articles, if we do not express our pain and what we are feeling, it gets pushed down and can cause harm to our body, mind and spirit.

Take the time to acknowledge your losses and give yourself permission to express how you are feeling and to let it go. These feelings do not go away by just ignoring them or repressing them. They will surface again and again until they are resolved and acknowledged.

My grandmother died when I was 13. She was the closest person to me and it felt like a part of me died when she did. I was in shock and pushed all of those feelings down and was not able to express and to feel the grief and loss until I was in my early 30's. Suppressing those feelings all those years did take a toll on my body and set up a fear of people leaving me, which has affected my relationships.

If you have recently experienced a loss whether it be a relationship, work related, or with your health, take the time to be still and ask yourself what kind of support do you need at this time so that you can feel safe to express how you are feeling and to heal in a gentle and loving way. Granted going through these feelings does not always "feel" good, but it is so necessary for our health and wellbeing to let this energy move through us and find resolution.

Any time you are going through loss is a time to be patient and loving with yourself and not to be judgmental or critical of yourself or any one else. Do the best you can to stop your mind from obsessing about the loss or why it happened. The human mind loves to "try" and figure everything out and to put things in a logical sequence and sometimes we do not discover the answers or the learning till weeks or months after the loss. We need the time to be with ourselves and rediscover who we are and to do what ever healing and processing is necessary to know what we want and to trust again.

It is a time to trust the process and know that you will come through it with a greater sense of your self and your courage and inner strength.