Understanding the Four Tasks of Grieving

You need to visit funeral homes Westmont, PA, after your loved one dies.

Grieving is a healthy and natural response to the loss of losing a loved one. No matter how much you try to hide it, you ought to lament, grieve, and mourn the death of someone special. Based on his research on terminally ill patients, psychologist William Worden, in 2008, argued that most individuals pass through four major phases or tasks during the grief journey.

Writing in response to the popular five stages of grief model, William Worden posits against the passive progression of stages of grief and instead signifies that mourners engage in four active tasks, namely:

• Accept the reality of the loss

• Experience the pain of grief

• Adjust to an environment with the “Deceased” missing

• Establish a lasting connection while embarking on a new life

A grieving individual can deal with these four tasks separately or at the same time – and the order can vary from person to person.

Task 1: Accept the reality of the loss

Hearing the news of your loved one’s death brings feelings of disbelief and shock. Your mind slowly processes the full weight of the loss – until you surrender to reality. From the initial outburst of denial emotions such as, “I can’t believe he’s gone.” Or “It can’t be happening.”, you embrace the reality that the loved one has left the world forever.

Funerals often play a key role in helping you acknowledge the loss and confront the grief and sorrow it accompanies.

Task 2: Process the pain of grief

This phase is marked by intense feelings of pain and sorrow once you have accepted the loss. Worden believes that this task varies from person to person and that grief accompanies a range of mixed emotions.

Many people try to hide or run away from pain by consuming drugs or delving into isolation. Remember, avoidance is the antithesis of the healing process – and compounds your pain in the long-term. Don’t hold onto your emotions and embrace whatever you feel.

Task 3: Adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing

Waldon argues that this phase – much like every other task – may be different for every person. It entails taking on new roles and responsibilities, both in your personal and professional lives. At the outset, it may be difficult but with time, you adapt to the changing environment and try to fill the vacuum in your life created by the death of the loved one.

You start seeing the world from a different perspective when a close one suddenly leaves you. The event may impact each aspect of your life, inside and out, and may take years before you completely adjust to the changed reality.

funeral homes Westmont, PATask 4: Establish a lasting connection while embarking on a new life

At this point, you already have found ways to cope with the grief and sorrow of losing the loved one – and to move on with your life. “Moving on” doesn’t mean forgetting the departed soul, instead it signifies finding the ways to keep their memory alive in your heart and mind.

The past memories and happy moments spent with them help you establish a never-ending, emotional connection with them after your experience at funeral homes Westmont, PA.