The Beauty of Healing
Grief is a curious thing. It can make you soft, and it can make you hard. It can reshape you in ways you could have never predicted. Losing someone you love is a life-altering event. A breakup of the known and the expected and the supposed-to. Some days you’ll wake up and everything will be full of purpose again. Other days, you’ll drop your phone and feel that pang in your chest as you pick it back up. The world can feel off-kilter for a very long time. Sometimes you’ll long for that person so much that you can hardly breathe. Sometimes you’ll long for them so little that you think you might forget.
Healing from loss isn’t about forgetting. It’s about slowly, gradually learning how to live again, how to breathe without that tug at your heart. It’s about finding the beauty in small things again. And, most important of all, it’s about finding new ways to hold on to the people we love without holding on so tightly that it hurts.
The Gentle Power of Self-Care
You may not be thinking about self-care right now. When you’re grieving, the world feels weighted, and it’s hard to summon energy for the basic things, let alone extra rituals that make us feel good. But grieving is hard on your body, mind, and spirit, and it’s important to hold space for yourself throughout the process. Self-care when you’re grieving isn’t about fancy baths or pampering routines. It’s about taking care of yourself however you can.
Let yourself slow down. Make a cup of tea. Light a candle, and really take the time to wash your face. Look for little moments of self-care that you can repeat throughout your day — they won’t take the grief away, but they will give you a quiet space to heal. Skin care is one of those gentle reminders that you’re still here, still worthy of tending to, still so incredibly loved.
The comfort of feeling clean and cared for, of washing away your tears and beginning anew, can be a lifeline. These small, private rituals are an investment in your physical and mental well-being, and if you can fit them into your grieving process, they can be a great source of comfort as you go through the motions of your daily life. Allowing yourself time for these small, restorative moments is an act of love and an important part of your own healing process.
Holding On Without Holding Back
Part of the process of healing from loss is remembering in a way that’s healthy and meaningful. Grief doesn’t just fade with time, it shifts. The sting is less acute, but there are always days, always moments when you’ll feel that familiar longing for what was. For many people, having a small, physical thing to hold on to is a way to make that connection and to feel a little closer to the person you loved.
A beautiful, custom memorial jewellery piece from a place like Ashes With Art can be a way to help you remember and heal. Pieces like these are made from the ashes, hair, or even personal belongings of your loved one. It’s a way to transform memory into something lasting and tangible, something personal and close to your heart. Remembering in a way that celebrates life, the love you shared, and the joy they brought to the world can be a vital way to heal from your loss.
Turning Ashes Into Art
Wearing memorial jewellery like a pendant necklace or a pair of earrings can be a beautiful way to integrate your loved one into your life and your story. It can feel like a way to move forward without forgetting, to keep them with you every step of the way. Part of your healing process is accepting the weight and the reality of loss and remembering the good things in spite of the pain.
Rediscovering Yourself
Loss, like grief, strips things down to the bone. In your healing process, you’ll likely find yourself drawn to a lot of soft colours, slow mornings, and not many frills. Your world may be pared back for a while, and that’s okay. This is the quiet stage of transformation, when confidence returns not in spite of or because of what others may think of you, but because of who you know yourself to be.
In this private, vulnerable space, you’ll start to see beauty again. Not the loud, curated sort, but the beauty of soft pastel colours, skin cared for like it’s sacred, smiles becoming your face’s resting expression once more. You’ll find it in the way you carry yourself, in how you hold your shoulders, in how you pause to remember the good things, in how you slowly put yourself back together. You’ll see it in the quiet knowledge of your strength and compassion and empathy, and the resilience of those you’ve loved.
Beauty in Healing
The path to healing from loss is not linear. There will be good days and bad days. But in giving yourself permission to care for and love yourself, in remembering your loved one in a way that honours and respects their memory and their life, you can find beauty in the transformation. Healing, in time, will bring you back to yourself and back to a place where things can make sense again. It will be different this time around, but you will find your way back, wiser and softer and more true than you knew you could be.
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