Top 70 Quotes & Sayings by Meghan O'Rourke - Page 2

While I did a lot of research, I ended up feeling that the best way to write about grief was to describe it from the inside out - the show the strange intensities that come along with it, the peculiar thoughts, the longing for that past - all the strange moments of thinking you glimpse the dead person on the street, or in your dreams.

Many grievers experience intense yearning or longing after a death - more than they experience, say, denial.

Be patient with yourself. Don't make the loss harder by thinking you should be a certain way, or have bounced back, etc.

There is no single way of grieving. But research suggests that there are some broad similarities among grievers.

For sure, the funeral industry seems intensely cynical to me and I don't think it is HELPING people mourn.

After all dying is one of the most profound and difficult experiences we have.

Many researchers say the dominant emotion experienced after loss is yearning or searching. And while you might feel more anger early on, it's accompanied by a whole host of other feelings.

I have seen that grief can be very different for different people. While the range of emotions experienced is similar, the way we deal with those emotions isn't, necessarily.

I was not raised with religion, and I had no faith before my mother died. On the other hand, when she died, I did not immediately feel she was "gone." I don't believe she is in something like heaven, but I also feel that we don't understand much about the nature of the universe. So I hold on to that uncertainty, at times.

Faith does help mourners survive their loss, some studies suggest; but I imagine one still struggles.