Unexpected grief, or feelings of grief for people we don’t know personally, can leave us feeling unsettled. At this time of national change, we thought it a good opportunity to signpost towards support available.
Grief Support
On the website we have a number of free downloads. These offer ideas and support on common issues experienced during grief. They can be found about half way down the ‘Our Impact’ page.
We also recommend the Good Grief Trust, an umbrella organisation that can point you towards broad or specific organisations.
Remember that keeping our feelings inside can be very damaging, so finding a person you feel comfortable to share with is very important. This might be a friend, or a professional, but do talk to someone.
If talking doesn’t feel possible yet, you can use a journal to speak or write your feelings. This also allows them to leave your brain, and give you some mental space. For writing, there are specialist journals available, but a plain notepad will work too.
Giving ourselves extra time to complete tasks, and practicing extra self care are also important.
Unexpected Grief
It’s very common to experience deep emotions after the death of a famous or significant person. Even if we never met them, we may feel a connection of some sort. Watching others experience grief can also trigger our own memories and feelings.
Often, people can take years to find the time and energy to manage their grief. It may be an unexpected grief that finally bursts your private grief bubble. This is often the case when people had to ‘get on’ with things in the moment, but years later have more capacity (or skills) to express their grief.
Queen Elizabeth II
We were saddened to hear about the death of Queen Elizabeth, and paused our social media until after the funeral. As a fellow lover of nature, and a frequent tree planter, we thought people might like this article from the Forestry Journal about her planting life.
If you wanted to leave a lasting legacy in her honour, the Queen’s Green Canopy project is still ongoing.