{"id":8897,"date":"2018-11-30T20:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T03:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/?p=8897"},"modified":"2021-04-02T11:48:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T18:48:28","slug":"how-not-to-say-the-wrong-thing-to-someone-who-is-grieving-and-what-to-say-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/30\/how-not-to-say-the-wrong-thing-to-someone-who-is-grieving-and-what-to-say-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"How Not to Say the Wrong Thing When Someone is Grieving – and what to say instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is it so easy to say the wrong thing when someone is grieving<\/a>? Death is universal. It happens everywhere, and eventually, to everyone. Why are we not taught, from childhood, how to respond when someone experiences a loss? It’s such a challenge, and for the most part, we really don’t know how to deal with our own losses, or anyone else’s,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the loss is the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, the end of a job, a devastating diagnosis, or even an new understanding that renders a lifelong worldview no longer tenable, interacting with someone grieving fills so many of us with an awkward case of foot-in-mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"section<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why it’s easy to unintentionally say something hurtful<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We can’t stand to see anyone sad. We especially can’t stand to see anyone express sadness; we’d even prefer anger. We feel like we have to make it go away. So what do we do? We do what we were taught to do. We tell them to cheer up. In essence, we give them reasons why they they are having the wrong emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n