When the Holidays Hurt and How to Navigate Grief and Loss This Season

The Holiday season arrives each year whether we are ready for it or not. For many, it brings  warmth, laughter, and cherished traditions we look forward to. But for those carrying grief, it  can feel like the world is celebrating around you while you are standing still, wondering how  everyone else seems to be doing fine and enjoying their time.  

If you have lost someone you love, the empty chair at the table, the missing text you’d get on  Christmas morning, the traditions that now feel hollow can make this one of the hardest  seasons to endure and go through. You are not alone though, and what you are feeling is  completely valid.  

Submitted photo

Here are a few ways to navigate this season: 

• Give yourself permission to feel. Grief doesn’t follow a schedule unfortunately. Let yourself  feel what you feel without judgement.  
• Adjust your expectations. This season may look different and that’s okay. Different doesn’t  mean that it’s ruined.  
• Keep a small tradition your loved one had alive.  
• Set boundaries around events. You don’t have to attend everything, and protecting your  energy might be just what you need this season.  
• Lean on safe people. Isolation makes grief heavier. Find one trusted person to walk  alongside you.  

Having hope doesn’t mean the pain will ever disappears. It means that slowly, in ways you may  not even notice at first, life begins to move forward again. Grief then starts to change shape  over time. The love behind it never goes away, but the weight of it can become something you  carry rather than something that carries you, and has power over you.  

Healing is possible, and you don’t have to find your way through this journey alone. Reaching  out to a therapist can be powerful and a courageous first step. 

Your grief is evidence of a love that was real and worth having.