25/03/2020
Hey world, it's Ellen (creator of S4YL Podcast), acknowledging that these last weeks have been confusing, scary, and hopeful — all in different and random proportions.
I think about grief more than the average bear, but this thought did cross my mind: What we're going through requires attention to an individual's reaction.
Just like grief, none of us is going to have the same experience, reaction, or needs, even though we're experiencing the "same" thing.
Harvard Business Review interviewed David Kessler (co-author of 'The 5 Stages of Grief' *) about this very thing.
Here's the quote I found most helpful:
"...[W]e’re the first generation to have feelings about our feelings. We tell ourselves things like, "I feel sad, but I shouldn’t feel that; other people have it worse." We can — we should — stop at the first feeling. "I feel sad. Let me go for five minutes to feel sad." Your work is to feel your sadness and fear and anger whether or not someone else is feeling something."
https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief
I hope you can take some time to Breathe, Read, and then Move Through this. We are all here for each other in our moment of collective grief.
( * In my interviews with people, I've learned there are lots of feelings surrounding The 5 Stages of Grief. However, Kessler has still spent significant time with this topic, and this is a good, level-headed post.)
