You may wonder how to process, cope, and otherwise get through grief when you lose someone close to you. These unique grief tips are designed to help you manage difficult times.

When the usual grief tips just aren’t enough…

…You may feel at a loss for how to get by until your grief starts to run its natural course. Grief can overwhelm your usual coping mechanisms. So, below, find some unique tips for getting through grief of all kinds.

Use Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, or other social media to commiserate and document your grieving process

Open forums with some level of anonymity are perfect places to have honest conversations about grief. When you want to get things off your chest, or just see that you’re not alone, social media makes it easy to connect over our unfiltered experiences of grief. In addition to the connection benefits, social media can also be a tool to help you document your own healing process.

Academic research has even been done on the utility of TikTok for people who are grieving. For instance, one paper describes how “stitches and duets function as interactive spaces for talking about, reacting to and sharing grief within the GriefTok community.”

Avoid tainting favorites with grief

In the aftermath of a grief-worthy event, you might lean heavily on comfort items, media, or activities. However, be aware of the potential associations you might create between a beloved comfort activity and such intense negative emotion.

One example: don’t binge your favorite comfort show because it will become entwined with this period of time. Same goes for favorite food, music, movies, or even places to visit.

Try to use a variety of different coping mechanisms while grieving, to avoid creating negative associations with any particular option.

Soothe your grief with binaural beats, healing tones, or brown noise

Do a search on YouTube to find tracks that resonate and feel good to you. Many videos labeled “brown noise,” “binaural beats,” or “healing tones” help create feelings of peace and calm down racing thoughts for listeners across the internet.

Use “tapping” to regulate your nervous system

“Tapping” or “EFT” is a self-soothing technique that may come in handy while grieving. Even if you can’t escape the feeling of grief until you’ve fully processed it, you may find moments of reprieve using somatic-focused techniques such as tapping.

Learn more about tapping

Create an art journal

Try using this resource from What’s Your Grief to journal with art–even if you aren’t artistically inclined.

Grief Art Journaling for the Artistically Challenged

Kiss the past goodbye to make space for the future

“Seek healing more than happiness” – Professor Lea Waters

If nothing else is working, consider reaching out for help…

If you’re grieving, now is the time to lean on your support network. Ask for company, a listening ear, help with responsibilities, or whatever else you need in order to get through this time.

If you don’t know who to turn to, you can always open a chat at Supportiv. We are here 24/7 to listen and commiserate..