How long does grief last?

There simply is not a time line or time table that can be applied to measure or predict a person's grief. Grief lasts as long as it takes to begin accepting, understanding and learning to adjust to living with your loss. For some people, this can be months. For others, it may take longer. Throughout this grieving process being able to receive support from those in your life who can give it is a way to care for yourself and help yourself begin the healing process. The changes and transitions required by grief may generate feelings of isolation and increased anxiety. When the work of grief is approached with the intention of allowing grief to teach and inform us these painful transitions and changes may also create a pathway to an ever-widening expansion of the heart as we heal.

The group helped me focus and process through the grief rather than stay stuck in it at the most intense level."                          -Willamette Valley Hospice bereavement group participant

Click below to read a poem by a bereavement group participant dedicated to his wife: