It’s OK to Feel This Way

Given the unprecedented situation we are all facing now, I wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that all of the feelings you are experiencing right now are entirely valid.

It is not dramatizing the situation to say that we are all, each and every one of us, currently grieving life as we have known it as there is no one who hasn’t been impacted in some way. Whatever ‘normal’ life looks like at the end of all of this, it will never again be the same as it was a mere two or three weeks ago. And so I think it’s important, in this moment, to acknowledge that a sense of loss and grief is ok, and entirely normal.

Accepting that what you are experiencing is a fundamental part of a natural process will help you to progress through to a stage of acceptance; but in your own time and your own way.

This diagram of the stages of grief shows some of the different emotions you may experience but it is important to recognise that the process is not necessarily linear and everyone will move through these stages in different ways. Sometimes the stages can all happen at once, or you may experience cycles of emotions, revisiting various stages multiple times. Grief is felt differently by everyone but the waves of different emotions, ranging from panic and shock through denial and perhaps numbness, will be familiar to all.

Being able to identify and recognise what you’re feeling and acknowledge that those around you may be in a different phase to you will be important in moving through this process and reaching a place of acceptance at the end. For this will end. And although none of us knows what life will look like on the other side, we can start to move forward toward a new normal only once we’ve processed and released the old one.