Reviews Elsewhere – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How we Learn from Love and Loss.

Reviews Elsewhere – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How we Learn from Love and Loss.

ByMikeM Reading Time: 3 minutes

Losing a spouse, parent, sibling, etc. for me would be different than losing one of my friends. I love them differently, and I imagine I would grieve differently.. Losing anyone you love hurts but you likely have a variety of different relationships with people so it only makes sense that you would grieve them differently too, and then it also becomes obvious that we all will grieve differently from each other. There’s no straight line, there’s no “normal” way to grieve, there is just one individual processing the loss of another person that they had a unique connection to.

Wherever you are in that process is where you are. It’s not a contest and it’s not a pre-defined timeline. It’s a loss and you are free to mourn that.

Sharing – People harm themselves to cope with big emotions. You can help them heal.

Sharing – People harm themselves to cope with big emotions. You can help them heal.

ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

I appreciate that there is someone researching this, and I am also glad that the subject of the article, artist Donalen Rojas Bowers, is sharing her story as well. It’s not an easy thing to talk about, it’s not an easy thing to learn about, and it’s definitely not an easy thing to find out someone you love is self-harming.

None of that unease should matter when compared to understanding and helping kids and adults who feel the need to self-harm because there have no better options available. The only way we find those is to talk about this.

Sharing – Psychological and Physiological Power of Validation

Sharing – Psychological and Physiological Power of Validation

ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

Note what it says, words like listening and acceptance. Note also what it doesn’t say, like anything about fixing things or changing their feelings, etc.

I talk often on here about simply being there. Sitting with someone who is struggling. Validation is all about that, and as you can read further, validating someone is maybe one of the best things you can do to keep open lines of communication, help them feel valued, and not dismiss their emotions.

Sharing – Why Mourning for the Self Is a Necessary Part of Healing

Sharing – Why Mourning for the Self Is a Necessary Part of Healing

ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

It’s the step where you can truly understand at the deepest level that what happened was not your fault. Many a survivor will say that without ever really feeling it, and you can tell because they will say that and immediately begin talking about how weak or needy they were as a child. As if that explains why they were abused, when in fact the only explanation necessary is that someone decided to abuse them.