Celebrities who have gone through Grief Open up on their coping Mechanism
Strive to thrive again
Coping with the death of my 9 year old son has been the most traumatizing thing that has ever happened. The why’s; regrets and the emotional trauma was something I couldn’t grapple with. I felt incapacitated and my world collapsed right before my own eyes. I was in denial.
Bouncing back and grabbing the opportunity to rebuild my life was never my agenda. I lived in my own small world blaming everything and everyone in sight; i was losing it! The pain was immense; I couldn’t just let it go, it was getting worse each day. I was losing my sanity. It has been a struggle but eventually I’ve learnt on how to handle it. I sorely needed to heal and this made me stronger each day.
The healing process
Did it just happen? No. I had to have a little conversation with me; myself and i. My health was deteriorating; I became frail and it dawned on me that I needed to get back to the drawing board. Guess what? It all starts from the mind; yes, once you accept the loss and try to cope with it, the healing process starts. It’s acceptable to feel the grief; when you try to resist and fight back the feelings, you’ll end up prolonging the grieving process.
Accepting and getting out of the grieving cocoon has really helped me to thrive again. We all get affected by the loss of a loved one and we handle it differently. Celebrities are no exception.
Celebrities speak out about their loss and how they’ve handled it
Liam Neeson
Liam was born on June 7 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, UK. He is privileged to have starred in successful films like Star Wars: EPISODE I, The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins, Kinsey, Clash of the Titans and The Chronicles of Narnia Series.
He lost his wife Natasha Richardson in a skiing accident. In the first couple of years after his wife’s death, he was still hoping against hopes anytime a door opened that his wife would enter through it. He missed their conversations.
He did a selfless act of kindness by donating three of his wife’s organs. Out of his grieving he prolonged lives.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on Feb 23, 2014, Liam Neeson admitted that grief remains.
Prince William and Harry
In an interview with new BBC documentary Mind over Marathon, Prince William opened up on how hard it was to lose his mother Princess Diana.
The last conversation he had with his mother before death plucked her from their lives still lingers in their minds. They admit that it hasn’t been easy but they’ve learnt to live with it. All they are left with are memories of their wonderful mother.
They decided to honor their mother’s life by screening a film Kensington Palace to celebrate her life.
Two decades later, Prince William still feels the loss and the gap but emphasized more on how to deal with the loss; that’s all that matters, he re-assured. On the other hand Prince Harry had to undergo counseling after a couple of years bottling up his mother’s death.
Joe Biden
Former US Vice President had to experience grief the hardest way. Losing his wife, daughter and son was the worst nightmare he wished he could wake up from. The loss was painful to say the least and losing his son Beau was the last straw.
Some occurrences in life are inevitable; you just can’t change them. Finding purpose is a way of dealing with grief. Joe Bidden used what he went through to counsel families of the Parkland School shooting victims.
He later overcame grief by finding his purpose and credits his son Beau for two most important attributes in his life; purpose and hope. He has kept himself engaged by spearheading diplomacy centre at the University of Pennsylvania.
The last years of his son’s life has been documented in a book Promise Me, Dad.
Surviving the darkest arrow of death
People handle loss differently. An option of speaking or bottling it up is an issue that many people fight with within themselves. Coping with grief is the hardest thing that one can go through and that’s why people result in resentment and blame everything and everyone in sight for their misery.
Others try so hard to alienate themselves from the outside world which can cause more harm than good. We all need a shoulder to lean on and assurance that everything will be alright after the darkest hour. Having a good support system from family and friends is very vital.
Picking up the pieces
Dwelling on the past and wishing if things happened the other way round will only drain you emotionally. Look at life from a different angle and make the best out of the situation. By using the negativity to counsel somebody else will make you heal. Open up; find purpose; reclaim your life and thrive back again.
We can never bring them back to life again but doing the things that our departed ones loved can speed up the healing process. Does speaking up help? Yes it does wonders. When you reminisce and share the memories, a spark of healing is ignited.
May the sun shine again and light up your life.
