The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief (TAW034)

Episode 034 – The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief

We are going through deep weeds right now — pandemic, protests, unemployment, so many losses — and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon. But there’s one important factor that will determine how well we deal with all of it. We are all feeling an important emotion we might not even realize we’re feeling: Grief.

What’s going on? Why is this happening? What can we do about it? This is part 2 of my conversation with Byron Kehler, a trauma therapist with nearly 40 years of experience. He’s got some really helpful things to say about what we’re all feeling and how we can face it well.

Show Notes

• Byron Kehler is a trauma therapist with nearly 40 years of professional experience. Learn more about him at www.ByronKehler.com.

• One emotion almost all of us are feeling right now is grief.
  • Grief is the natural emotional processing of loss. Nearly everyone has lost something during the pandemic. That means we are holding grief.
  • We are really bad at expressing and processing grief because we want to avoid it.
  • Failing to name and process our grief will lead us to much more emotional discomfort and undermine our emotional and spiritual health.

If you prefer, watch and share the video version on Youtube.

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Resources Mentioned

• Tear Soup – a great book about the process of healing from grief. Also appropriate for children.

• Sacred Sorrows – a great book about the process of healing from grief.

• The Untangle Workbook – Sort out your complicated feelings with this guided journal. The first 30 pages teach you the basics of what emotions are, what is happening in your body and brain when you feel them, and what they mean. The rest of the workbook is a template you can use to walk through an emotional experience so that you can understand it and respond with wisdom. Learn more at the link above.

• The Untangled Heart Workshop Online – Learn what’s happening in your body and brain when you feel those big emotions, how they are connected to your story, and how to navigate them with wisdom. This is the online version of the live workshop. 5 hours of video teaching, guided journaling exercises, 23-page downloadable notes packet and more. Learn more at the link above.

Find My Stuff

• The Wisdom of Your Heart: Discovering the God-Given Purpose and Power of Your Emotions.
• Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
• Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.

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