Coping with Grief in the Winter: Winter Funeral & Grief Support

Grief is hard no matter the season, but it feels especially heavy during the wintertime. Cold weather, shorter days, and winter holidays all make wintertime grief challenging to navigate. While there’s no way to ease your grief entirely, there are steps you can take to make your grief feel a little more manageable as you cope with the loss.

Staying active is one of the best ways to improve your mental health during any circumstance, including a time of grief. Being active helps to keep your mind busy and produces mood-boosting endorphins in your brain. Most importantly, staying active is a simple way to keep yourself healthy during this challenging time.

When you’re grieving, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do a certain type or amount of exercise. Instead, do things you enjoy. Take a short walk, do some yoga before bed, or go to the gym and lift weights. Find an activity you enjoy that can be done regardless of cold winter weather.

One of the hardest parts about grieving in the winter is the lack of sunlight. Shorter days with earlier sunsets can feel suffocating, making it all too easy to slip into a state of depression. Combat this by getting as much sun as possible, even if you’re indoors. Getting up in the morning to open the curtains can greatly impact your mood, even if that’s the only sun exposure you get that day.

You can opt for a more tech-savvy approach that also hacks sunlight in the winter with sun-mimicking lamps. The best part of this option is you can get sunlight when you want it, no matter the time of day, even if that light is artificial.

The worst thing you can do when you’re grieving is isolate yourself. When you isolate yourself, the feelings of grief can quickly become overwhelming. Remember, you aren’t going through this alone, and it’s okay to ask for help or a shoulder to cry on. You don’t have to face these feelings by yourself, and you shouldn’t have to.

Spend time with family and friends, or find a local grief support group to form new connections with people in a similar circumstance. Socializing and finding happy moments each day doesn’t make your grief any less real, but it will make it feel a lot less lonely. Isolating is a common symptom of grief, but human connection is a vital part of the healing process.

If you’re struggling to cope with winter grief or need assistance planning a winter funeral, contact Hamel-Lydon today to speak with one of our professional staff members. We know the winter season makes it even more difficult to cope with a loss, so our team is here to help. Give us a call at 617-472-5888 or fill out our contact form.