10% Happier with Dan Harris The Science of Loss and Recovery | Mary-Frances O’Connor
May 11, 2022
Mary-Frances O’Connor, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and author of "The Grieving Brain," shares her insights on grief stemming from various forms of loss. She differentiates between grief and mourning while discussing how her Buddhist practice shapes her view on grief's impermanence. O’Connor emphasizes the importance of diverse coping strategies and explores prolonged grief disorder, especially relevant during the pandemic. Her reflections reveal grief as a profound teacher of empathy and resilience.
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Coping with Grief
- Develop diverse coping mechanisms for grief, as no single strategy works universally.
- Combine avoidance in certain situations with other strategies to manage grief effectively.
Grief vs. Grieving
- Grief is the overwhelming feeling of loss.
- Grieving is how grief changes over time, a form of learning to live with loss.
Neurobiology of Grief
- Bonding creates physical changes in the brain, encoding loved ones as permanent.
- Grief arises from the brain's inability to reconcile this permanence with the loved one's absence.
