Abby views her grief as a lifelong process and emphasizes the need to live fully and honor the life lost while carrying on.

“I think that um very early on in grieving Emerson I realized that this was like a lifelong like process.”

Grief does not get better or easier, but one can eventually tolerate the loss by achieving personal growth through the struggle.

“you know, it's tough cuz I want to tell people like when somebody dies, it's going to get better, but it doesn't get better, man. You don't even get used to it. It just keep tolerating it and you just somehow it gets a little better someday.”

Grief does not disappear over time, but rather it is a lasting experience that evolves alongside life, ultimately becoming manageable.

“things do like things become okay. And then at the same time, like even after you lose someone, like they don't even remain static even though they're gone.”

Grief is an unending process without a final destination.

“one of the most impactful things that I learned about myself is that I hadn't finished grieving the death of my father because you never finish grieving”

Grief is a non-linear process that varies for every individual, and it is a state of moving forward with a loss rather than moving on from it.

“I'm always moving forward I'm building my life around this this great law I this great love and this great loss and I'm always moving forward but I'm never moving on”

Tara Swart asserts that processing grief requires fully feeling and going into the depth of the emotions rather than trying to suppress them or immediately returning to work.

“I had this really strong feeling that I couldn't do that. I mean, I wouldn't I don't think I would have been capable of actually, you know, sort of performing, but also I felt like I had to go to the bottom of all of these emotions. like really go as far down as it was going to take me to be able to”

Louise Hamlin believes that people should allow themselves to experience their grief rather than trying to suppress or hide their emotions.

“I think that you just have to experience the grief. I don't think it's a good idea to try and shut it away and to try and carry on as normal because then I think you're just um bottling up emotions and they'll come and bite you in the future.”

Grief should not be suppressed but rather experienced so that it can eventually transform into compassion.

“if we can fully stay with it then when they move then those emotions move through us then we can stay with it in the Nate and then they shift they start to change right and then they can transfigure they can transform into something more powerful”

She found that allowing herself to fully feel both pain and joy, rather than trying to suppress them or create a narrative to avoid them, was essential for her emotional healing.

“I was trying to um I I wanted the church to get rid of the pain. I wanted like that that's not what it's supposed to isn't that the whole point, right? It feels like that's what I had been trained to think that you can find this peace and comfort and it wasn't happening until I just allowed myself t”

One should hold the suffering of grief in compassion rather than hardening the heart against it.

“Just hold it in compassion and see if it can accept a little compassion. You're not trying to fix it. You're just saying, "Okay, this is suffering and I I'm trying to be present with deep kindness and care."”

Grieving individuals feel more supported when others acknowledge the validity of their pain rather than attempting to provide immediate solutions or platitudes.

“what I find you know I've been doing this for eight nine years you know where people don't know what to say you know you get the the normal quotes or everything happens for a reason I'm praying for you that one kind of make even though I'm a believer that I'm praying for you just kind of makes me ma”

The ability to exist in the presence of someone else's grief without trying to fix it is a fundamental aspect of human connection.

“What's born of grief, the transcendence of coming together, the ability for one person to observe another person's grief and not actually try and heal it, and just observe, and just be present in the company of grief”

Telling someone experiencing trauma that every cloud has a silver lining is an unhelpful cliché that often causes anger.

“When I was in that time, the thing that could bring like white hot fury to me was the idea that there is like every cloud has a silver lining.”

Martine Smith argues that well-intended platitudes from church members during times of tragedy often serve to make the speaker feel better rather than genuinely comforting the grieving person.

“I remember when a family member's son died uh just in the past few years and uh you know we're at the funeral we're at the you know we're at the the family time afterwards and the fam and the ward member the well-intended ward member walks up to my family member and says I had a dream and your son c”

Clinging to the belongings of a deceased loved one creates unnecessary suffering and weighs a person down.

“clinging can be even harder because when we're clinging to everything we treat everything as though it is precious and it weighs us down I think about if you go out for a hike with a backpack you want to bring the things that you need to sustain you but if you start putting bricks in that backpack a”

Holding onto the broken possessions of a loved one is not the correct way to honor the legacy of their life.

“the way you honor the song isn't by hanging on to the broken pieces of a radio that don't work anymore you hang on to the song by letting go of the broken pieces of the radio and by singing it because the song lives in your heart”