Approach grief by maintaining your deep emotional attachment to the lost person/animal/thing, while actively remapping your understanding of their location in space and time without expecting past interactions to recur.
Set aside 5-45 minutes regularly for “rational grieving,” deeply feeling your attachment to the lost one while consciously preventing “what-if” thinking and anchoring yourself in the present physical environment.
Actively disengage from “what-if” thinking during grief, as this infinite landscape of possibilities is tied to guilt and strengthens maladaptive emotional bonds, hindering the remapping process.
Consciously shift your perception of grief from solely sadness to a motivational state of yearning or desire for something specific, as this understanding is key to navigating the process effectively.
Form a firm mental representation of where the lost person/animal/thing now exists, according to your beliefs, to integrate them into your remapped understanding of space, time, and attachment.
Recognize that your brain maps relationships in terms of space, time, and closeness (attachment). This framework helps explain the disorientation of loss and guides the necessary remapping process.
Access support from a trained professional (psychologist, psychiatrist, or bereavement group) if you are experiencing complicated or prolonged grief, as these conditions often require substantial expert assistance.
View bright sunlight for 10-30 minutes shortly after waking (without sunglasses or through glass) to regulate cortisol rhythms, improve sleep, and establish a stable emotional foundation for navigating grief.
Dim lights and avoid bright artificial screens in the evening (especially 10 PM to 4 AM) to support healthy cortisol and melatonin rhythms, crucial for quality sleep and emotional regulation during grief.
Practice long exhale breathing for 1-5 minutes daily, consciously slowing your heart rate during exhales and increasing it during inhales, to strengthen the mind-body connection and access feelings of attachment.
Engage in NSDR protocols for 10-30 minutes, potentially multiple times a day, to accelerate neuroplasticity and support the brain’s necessary reordering of connections for moving through grief.
Proactively reduce your resting levels of epinephrine (adrenaline) through stress management tools to potentially inoculate yourself against developing complicated or prolonged grief.
Actively lean into building rich episodic memories and emotional attachments with people and animals in your life, as these deep connections make life rich and are worth the eventual grief process.