Grieving with the Help of Healing Traditions and Rituals
Throughout history, healing rituals have played an important role in meeting our individual needs. But besides helping us attain spiritual enlightenment or health improvements, healing rituals can help us deal with grief, too.
Healing Rituals Help Grief
As human beings, we’re creatures of habit. We like to do similar things every day and can find it difficult to deal with changes – even small ones.
Losing an important person in your life is a huge change to come to terms with. When you lose someone who is close to you, a very difficult journey of grieving begins. You experience deep pain and may feel like life is completely different now.
Although grief is normal, there’s no denying that grieving is a difficult period to experience. And although nothing can eradicate this pain, healing traditions and rituals can help lessen the grief experienced.
What is a Healing Ritual or Tradition?
Rituals are especially helpful to humans, a species who appreciates consistency.
By practising a healing tradition or ritual, purpose is brought to action. Whether it’s to seek peace, clear the mind or become more connected to your loved one, healing traditions provide an avenue to accomplish this.
Without even knowing it, you probably already practice various rituals all day long. From the moment you wake up at a certain time every day until bedtime each evening, rituals help us get through our day.
Besides helping us know what to expect next, rituals provide structure, meaning and connectedness to our lives. That’s why they are so important when it comes to helping us process our grief.
Grieving is when Healing Rituals are Most Needed
Healing rituals provide a safe, constructive way to remember our loved one and work through our grief.
They provide a way to keep a loved one’s memories alive and can help bring a sense of calmness back into our lives.
Create Your Own Healing Ritual
There really are no rules when it comes to creating a healing ritual that’s right for you.
Whether it’s only on a loved one’s birthday or anniversary of their death or practised on a more regular basis, healing rituals can be performed whenever you want.
They can also be as simple – or elaborate – as you desire. They are here to help you with your grief, so do what’s right for you!
Keeping Your Loved One’s Memories Alive with a Healing Ritual
Spend some time choosing a healing ritual that best fits your circumstance. Here are some suggestions:
- Light a candle at a certain time each day/week/year to remind you of your loved one
- Plant the same type of flower each spring in your loved one’s honour
- Carry something of meaning that reminds you of your loved one and take it out whenever needed
- Make a monthly or yearly donation to your loved one’s favourite charity
- Find a spiritual or inspirational passage that best describes your loved one and refer to it often
Ask a Professional for Further Advice
Besides starting a healing ritual to help with the grieving process, sometimes more help is needed in the form of a grief counsellor or from other grief resources.
The professional team at Circle of Life Cremation and Burial Centre Inc. has years of experience not only planning funeral, cremation and memorial services but with knowing how to process grief, too. Let us help you today.
