Resilient Grieving

Book excerpt: “This book aims to help you relearn your world . . . to help you navigate the grieving process as best you can—without hiding from your feelings or denying the reality, or significance, of your loss.” —from Resilient Grieving The death of someone we hold dear may be inevitable; being paralyzed by our grief is not. A growing body of research has revealed our capacity for resilient grieving, our innate ability to respond to traumatic loss by finding ways to grow—by becoming more engaged with our lives, and discovering new, profound meaning. Author and resilience/well-being expert Lucy Hone, a pioneer in fusing positive psychology and bereavement research, was faced with her own inescapable sorrow when, in 2014, her 12-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. By following the strategies of resilient grieving, she found a proactive way to move through her grief, and, over time, embrace life again. Resilient Grieving offers an empowering alternative to the five-stage Kübler-Ross model of grief—and makes clear our inherent capacity for growth following the trauma of a loss that changes everything.