Lots of great things happen to you while you are asleep.
Your skin repairs itself, your mind relaxes and resets itself and your body strengthens its immune system and reduces levels of stress.
But you have to do it to reap the benefits.
These days people like to brag about how little sleep they need. I remember reading somewhere that Martha Stewart only sleeps four hours a night. I thought to myself, "You've got to be kidding! I could never last very long if I only got four hours of sleep a night!"
Even Charlie Brown & Lucy Need To Sleep
One of the key elements of a healthy life and healthy grieving is allowing your emotions to surface in order to work through them. You can put off dealing with your emotions but sooner or later they will come back at you, even stronger than before. Unfortunately, you have to come face-to-face with your pain. Oherwise you block the grieving process. If you continue to ignore these emotions, then you end up holding them inside yourself and eventually you will affect your ability to sleep and other areas of your life.
Do you feel tired all the time? Part of grieving is feeling fatigued. I was exhausted after my husband's death and I found that dealing with my husband's death made my sleeping patterns change in a way that had never happened before. After working all day, I would fall asleep sometime around 7:30 pm or 8 pm and then sleep until 4am. On the weekends, I would fall alseep during the day. This went on for a number of months and then my sleeping pattern finally changed again. It felt weird but it was okay.
Even if you can't sleep because you are upset or anxious about a loved one's death, I also found you can sometimes sit still and breathe quietly and find a focal point in which to loose yourself. It might not work the first few times you try this but it is worth the effort.
Sleep is critical to our well-being and resting your body will help your emotional recovery.
Listen to this great TED talk that Arianna Huffington gave on the value of getting a good night's rest and how sleep is essential to our creativity and recovery. She makes some great points!
Serene and peaceful, can't you feel the healing power of the flowers? The first time I saw it, I mentally slipped into the photograph and felt the aura of its calming vibe. I could practically smell the beautiful flowers in the shape of a majestic sun surrounding the Nature Girl.
Ommmmmmmm. The healing is starting and it can happen for all of us but we need to be patient. Healing takes time. The most important thing about restoring your mental and emotional health after the loss of a loved one is to think positively: if you want to heal then it will happen for you. Even if you don't have the energy right now to feel positive, try to keep a small positive thought in the back of your memory. It will help to carry you through the pain.
Healing is defined as restoring to health or soundness, to repair or go through a process to cure your inner self. In a sense, you are seeking to come to grips with the reality of what has happened to you. The numbness you feel is your body's way of giving you time to catch up with your loss and the new changes in your life.
I found that the first step towards healing from the loss of a loved one is to allow yourself to feel your feelings. You may want to ignore the feelings because they are so painful but trust me, if you are patient with yourself, you can work through or process the waves of emotions coming at you.
Someone you cared about A LOT, someone you loved A LOT is no longer with you physically or emotionally. It takes a long time to really deal with the shock of your loss but eventually time will help you get control of your emotions and give you the courage to continue to move forward with your life. It has been almost nine years since my husband died and I still have setbacks. Sometimes I will read something that reminds me of him or I see something that reminds me of him or of our life together.
I try to talk about it or I try to embrace the memory. Ignoring or denying what has happened only makes it makes it more painful and more overwhelming. Grief is a process and in expressing your grief you are allowing yourself to heal and to be hopeful.
It's not that you will never be happy again. It's more that your life has changed and you won't be exactly the person that you were before your loved one died. You must rebuild and find a way to move forward.
We each have different resources but here are some suggestions to help in your healing:
-- spend time in nature
-- listen to music
-- find a quiet place, breathe deeply and relax
-- reach out to a friend
-- join a group such as a church group or a community group
-- strengthen a family tie
-- or lie in the grass, feel the warmth of the sun and smell the flowers!
