Growing through grief … it’s a process

As we navigate through life, fulfilling our purpose, inevitably we will experience some form of grief and loss. Here are a few ways we experience grief: the loss of a loved one, losing a close friend, terminated from a job, moving to another state, divorce, and so many other life impacting things may occur.
 
Grief can hit you so hard that it literally feels like your world has stopped and you have no reason to hope again.  In most cases, 

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you feel numb, and you are simply existing.  You are physically “present” but mentally and emotionally, you are completely lost or checked out of life.
 
In these moments, we must be intentional about growing even though we are suffering from something that was so valuable to us and now we are trying to adjust to a new “normal.”  Throughout life we’ve seen models on how to live with each other, the importance of building relational equity, but no one really teaches us how to live without them. If we are supposed to grow through grief, how is that even possible? How do we experience a loss and grow at the same time?  Grief is the conflict or tensions of two separate worlds.  You don’t think about the feeling of grief and think about growth at the same time. 
 
When you think about growing, some words that come to mind are; happiness, developing, a lifelong learner, curiosity, innovation, and continuing to achieve and move forward. When defining grief, these words take on a different meaning.
 
In every obstacle there is an opportunity to grow. We must make the decision and humble ourselves and ask God to help us.  The amazing thing about God is he already knows what we are going to face in our life so HE is fully able and prepared to help us grow through any challenges we might face.
 
Dealing with grief is not an event, it’s a process. Think about when you plant a seed to grow. There are necessary actions that we must do to make sure the seed is developed into what it was designed to become.  We have to apply that same principle as we go through the process of grief.
 
In my life, I have found my pain is birthing my purpose. Although I’ve encountered many loses, through each one I have experienced growth. I can’t say I have grown at the same pace of each lost.  But what I can say is that I am alive today to tell my story, because I decided to grow through the grief. The process made me stronger.
 

Graciously written by Makeeta Keys, a compassionate, creative, consistent and committed individual that has a passion for helping people accomplish their goals in life.  She is a life long learner that loves facilitating, developing professional development, and developing processes and structures.  She is happily married to Jeremy L. Keys and has two amazing children Jaxon and Kennedy.  She loves to travel, spend time with family and friends, swim, and shopping.

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