Recreating Joy

While my blog is for people who are looking to rebuild their lives you may not be ready for that. If you’re newly widowed and grieving deeply just take a deep breath and know that it will get easier. You can survive.

Grieving takes time and it hurts like hell. At first you may feel so heartbroken that you don’t think you’ll survive. Or want to. As I wrote in my ‘Welcome’, at first it feels like all pain, all the time. Then you find moments of feeling a little better. Then moments grow into hours and hours into days. Eventually you feel better more than you feel awful.

The journey is different for everyone but I don’t think it’s wise to go it alone. Reach out for help. Friends and family will want to be there for you but I recommend you find a good therapist or grief group who can guide you. Here are some things you may find helpful.

WEBSITES

• Find a therapy group—CLICK HERE for Psychology Today’s list of therapy groups by state.
• Find a therapist—CLICK HERE for Psychology Today’s list of therapist by state.
• MeetUp—Find a group for widows and widowers in your area.
• The Widdahood—An online community for people who have lost a spouse.
• Guide for the Newly Widowed—CLICK HERE for an AARP article.
• Soaring Spirits—Non-profit providing blog articles, widow/widower pen pals, events such as Camp Widow® and information for widows.
• CLICK HERE to request a ‘Newly Widowed Packet’ to be sent to you through the mail.
• CLICK HERE for an article for the newly widowed about finances

BOOKS

Building A Life You Love After Losing the Love of Your Life by Myra McElhaney

The Grief Club by Melody Beattie

Author of the bestselling Codependent No More, Beattie is well known as a self-help author. This is the first grief book I read and I found it helpful in coming to terms with my grief.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston.

I found this novel to be something I could relate to. Although the author wrote it after the loss of her father I think she nailed the struggles of a new widow.

Confessions of a Mediocre Widow: Or, How I Lost My Husband and My Sanity by Catherine Tidd

This irreverent memoir by a young widow with three children under six years old speaks to the many widows who suffered loss way too young.