After cremations, which are one of the cremation services offered in Macomb, MI, you will find that the fullness of grief settles in to stay for a while. This is completely normal, but you may be surprised at some of the effects that grief has on your life and your body.
While you may struggle more with getting good sleep and you may find yourself feeling like you’re constantly fighting the blues, even if you’re normally an optimistic person, and doldrums, you may find that you have a hard time staying focused and concentrating on things.
If you are someone who normally has laser-sharp focus and concentration, this can be very disconcerting and may leave you feeling anxious because it is so out of character for you.
First, relax. This is one of the normal side effects of grief over the loss of a loved one. Not only is your body affected, but so is your brain.
Grief releases many chemicals in the brain as you work your way through accepting that your loved one is gone, adjusting to that new reality (while recalling memories of them), and adapting to a life going forward without them.
These chemicals produce sometimes conflicting emotions that you may have a hard time understanding and resolving, so they stay at the forefront of your mind – in conflict – as you sort through them, analyze them, and work to make sense of them.
All this mental work going on in your brain can leave very little time or space for the normal demands of day-to-day life. As a result, you may forget simple things. You may lose things. You may find doing focused tasks or work difficult, if not impossible.
You may feel antsy and anxious and find yourself getting up a lot just to walk around and try to shake off the lack of concentration (this doesn’t work, by the way, but walking is good for you because it can release some of the energy and calm down some of the anxiety and restlessness).
You may also feel mentally exhausted all the time, which can translate into not being able to focus on or concentrate on things that you normally enjoy doing, such as reading or doing hobbies.
There are, however, some things that won’t eliminate this normal part of grieving completely, but can help you make sense of it and give your brain some space to handle other things.
Journaling is a great way to clear your mind. As long as your thoughts – disparate and conflicting – stay in your mind, they will take up all the space and demand your constant attention. Writing them down, even if you don’t get answers or you can’t resolve them right away, gives them concrete form in black and white (don’t do this on a computer – use a pen and paper).
Writing can give clarity, even if it doesn’t always give answers (although sometimes you’ll find that you can get to the root of an emotion or a thought process when you simply start writing down your thoughts and feelings).
Another thing you must do is be patient with yourself and with the grieving process. It has a life and a timeline of its on. To subvert that or try to take a shortcut out of it to get your life – and your brain – back to normal will mean that you’re only kicking that can down the road into the future where, at some point, you will have to deal with it (and all the additional stuff that has been added to it with time).
For information about cremation services in Macomb, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 46530 Romeo Plank Rd., Macomb, MI 48044, or you can call us today at (586) 412-8999.