Get Ready for 2026: Grieve

It's easy to look back at the losses of the past year and wish to simply put them behind us as we move forward into the new year. But this becomes a problem if we have not honored the experiences that our body has carried us through.

Grieve the losses

I've struggled with this for years. Tears feel like a waste of time and energy, and they don't seem to "fix" anything anyway. Life was hard, and that was it. I survived, and now I can move on.

That mentality might work in our head, but our body remembers even when our head chooses to forget. And if our body has endured stress of challenges, losses, conflicts, or chaos, it wants to be seen in how it brought us to the other side.

Emotional memories are stored in our bodies. And if those memories of loss, grief and struggle are not honored and validated, our bodies will begin to speak louder and louder: anxiety, loss of appetite, insomnia, depression, loneliness, hypervigilance and even panic and control.

So, as you've taken time to reflect on your year and have identified some things that were hard or that you didn't like, sit with those. Remember how your body felt in those moments, reflect on the losses - what you longed for, what you could have had, what you're missing now - and allow your body to experience the pain.

This kind of experience can be distressing. If you find that your body is overreacting, pause. Take a step back, and reach out to a friend, pastor, or therapist (or message me - I'm a mental health coach -, and I can walk you through some grounding exercises that may make the process more bearable).

Until we grieve the losses and validate our experiences, we cannot move on to growth and dreams and discovery.

So today, if you can, take some time and grieve!