Grief and Loss Defined

Grief: The feeling that your life has spun out of control.

Loss: A hole in your world, caused by a life event, that creates a feeling of grief.

Can it be that simple? Yes. Things happen to us. That's normal. That's life. But how we interpret them, what they mean to us, how we react to them changes us, changes our lives. Those reactions, good or bad, leave a hole where our life's path diverged from the route it was on. There is an emptiness that remains. The Loss.

We feel that loss, don't we? We feel it in so many ways. Big ways. Little ways. It depends on how important the loss feels to us. What does it feel like? Many things. Sadness, certainly. Loss is sad. But it can also feel like happiness, anger, revenge, confusion, depression... a long list of emotions that can swirl you around in circles, or throw you up and down like a roller coaster, mire you down in mental quicksand or leave you feeling like you're in a slow motion tornado. The Grief.