Everybody grieves may it be due to loss or life transitions. It is a highly individual process. The stages of grief, mourning and transitions are universal and are experienced by people from all walks of life, across many cultures. Mourning occurs in response to an individual’s own terminal illness, the loss of a close relationship, or to the death of a valued being (human, or animal). This further includes all life transitions to name a few divorce, change of career, empty nest syndrome, COVID related changes. There are five stages of grief.
In our bereavement or life transitions, we spend different lengths of time working through each step and express each stage with different levels of intensity. Contrary to popular belief, the five stages of loss do not necessarily occur in any specific order. We often move between stages before achieving a more peaceful acceptance of death and change.
The death of your loved one and the unavoidable transitions in life might inspire you to evaluate your own feelings of mortality and acceptance towards life changes both expected and unexpected. Throughout each stage, a common thread of hope emerges: As long as there is life, there is hope. As long as there is hope, there is life.
Many people do not experience the stages of grief in the order listed below, which is perfectly okay and normal. The key to understanding the stages is not to feel like you must go through every one of them, in precise order. Instead, it’s more helpful to look at them as guides in the grieving / transition process — it helps you understand and put into context where you are.
Please keep in mind that everyone grieves / handle transitions differently. Some people will wear their emotions on their sleeve and be outwardly emotional. Others will experience their grief more internally. You should try and not judge how a person experiences their grief, as each person will experience it differently. Below are the 5 stages of grief that is also applicable to life transitions:
- Denial & Isolation
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
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