Handout 2: Ways to Cope with Grief

Here are some ways others have found to cope with grief. What would you add?

  1. Create visual art: painting, collages, photography, or fabric art
  2. Put quotes on your refrigerator. Example: “I will turn to her as often as possible in gladness. I will even salute her with a laugh. The less I mourn her the nearer I seem to her.” C. S. Lewis
  3. Read something you have been longing to read.
  4. Pray. “If you can’t pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.” Vance Havner
  5. Play, perform, or listen to music.
  6. Write. Compose a good-bye or anniversary letter or poem.
  7. Pie-chart your feelings. Draw a pie chart to illustrate your current emotions and the relative space they occupy in your emotional and spiritual life. You might include fear, guilt, anger, regret, depression, confusion, and fatigue but also love, gratitude, and relief. Charting emotions helps one visualize and make sense of an emotional quagmire.
  8. Meditate using your favorite focus technique, or try something new. Use meditative music, color, smell, or your favorite place as a focus.
  9. Watch movies and television that are heartfelt or humorous. Watch something you have been meaning to watch.
  10. Try bumper sticker theology: Create the perfect bumper sticker about grief.
  11. Exercise. Walk, dance, do yoga, bike, or play a sport. Resist the temptation toward inactivity.
  12. Enjoy humor: comics, magazine cartoons, live performances, or a good laugh with family or friends.