The Importance of Mind-Body Work for Treating Grief

Because grief is, by nature, a very difficult and powerful emotion, many people have a hard time facing it directly. In some cases, it may seem easier to bottle up our grief rather than let it all out. It may seem more responsible – especially if we're taking care of others – to put our grief on the back burner so we can act strong in the face of adversity. While all of these possibilities are valid, suppressing your grief doesn't make it go away. Instead, it just stores it for later. Where does grief get stored? Generally, in your body. Emotions and psychological issues that are unaddressed or repressed tend to make their way into the body, where they are stored until they can be dealt with at a later date. Unfortunately, the body may not respond well to this. Holding onto negative emotions creates stress for the body, and can lead to physical difficulties and can even contribute to illness. This is one of the reasons that it's incredibly important to work through emotions as quickly as possible when they come up. Sometimes, however, our emotions can seem too intense to handle when we're on our own. And, when the emotions arise because of the loss of our spouse, it might seem like we have nobody to turn to. This is one of the reasons that holistic mind-body approaches can be useful for helping widows cope with the grief of losing a spouse.