The battle was hard. We thought we had won but death was working harder to have you, to take you. I remember the doctors telling us, you were getting better that you still had many years ahead of you. I had no medical doubt about it.

“ Even after stabilizing we were still not out of danger such cases have a possibility of becoming tragic overnight”, the doctor admitted, after finding your body cold as ice, on your hospital bed, all alone.

Three years down the line and our hearts are still heavy but we are learning how to cope. Now whenever we close our eyes we can see you and when we reach with our hearts we can touch you. You will always be in our hearts. Rest well.

Grief is an occurrence that is unfortunately inevitable. Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something that is important to you. It will occur at one point in all of our human lives. Sooner or later we will all lose someone.

While in grieving mode you might not be able to carry out certain everyday tasks while burdened with the sense of loss. Grief is a blanket over one’s mind, a numb feeling, it is a heavy but empty heart that breaks you down molecule by molecule, removing you from everyday life and if you are not careful before long you might end up falling into a depression.

Don’t be alarmed there are a lot of ways a person can resolve their grief. Try finding a healthy way to express yourself though the person can never be brought back to life, resolving those feelings of grief is important.

One way that helped me with grief is journaling. Journaling is writing down your thoughts .Matter of fact, many people find journaling valuable and meaningful and report feeling better afterward myself included. As a person who isn’t as open as I would like to be, journaling really helped take a load off my chest .Journaling helped crystalize my thoughts on paper. I became less distressed, anxious and my sleeping patterns improved greatly. Journaling is a safe and judgment free zone to explore your muddled thoughts and feelings, to find ways to remember your loved ones and record an ongoing journey of grief.

Grief journaling helped me in a number of ways and it can help anyone who is going through grief as well.

To begin with, Journaling as I said earlier takes the load you are carrying off your chest, it’s a great way of expressing oneself especially if you are not ready to confide in someone at the moment. Disclosing emotions through writing can boost immune function as well as mood. Journaling offers a simple way to cope whose only requirement is a pen and paper, or laptop or any other kind of device.

Furthermore, writing has therapeutic value, writing has been found to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety as well as stress.

Grief journaling also reduces ruminative thought which greatly helps sleeping patterns. Quality sleep equals improvements in overall functioning.

Every single one of us has triggers , journaling helps track down the little things that tick off our triggers, be it anger or fear any symptoms from your day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them

 Dr. James Pennebaker, author of Writing to Heal has seen improved immune function in participants of writing exercises. Stress often comes from emotional blockages, and overthinking hypotheticals. He explains, “When we translate an experience into language we essentially make the experience graspable.” And in doing so, you free yourself from mentally being tangled in traumas.”

To be clear you don’t need to start with “Dear diary”, every time you decide to write in your journal. Instead write whatever feels right. Write down how you feel. Pay no attention to grammatical errors or typos that’s only slowing you down and remember you are writing for yourself, just write, speak in typos if you must but make sure to get what you are feeling on paper. Your journal doesn’t have to follow any kind of structure. It’s your own private space to discuss whatever you want.

Write every day, set aside a few minutes every day to write in journal, I recommend 10-20 minutes every day, to help you write regularly .For this to be easy, keep your note book and pen or whatever you are using to journal in handy at all times.

Also if something comes off as scary don’t be afraid to explore it. Perhaps exploring this scary thought may answer or shade some light to certain things you have been harboring.

Keep in mind journaling is just one way a person can use to cope with loss, there are plenty of other ways a person can get help they need. Some other ways include counselling, mediation, joining a support group, etc.
Journaling is an amazing grief management tool, a good-for-you habit that we take small but solids and honest steps forward, which is the only way through grief.