{"id":30037,"date":"2023-12-24T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-deal-with-grief-and-loneliness-during-the-holiday-season\/"},"modified":"2023-12-24T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T17:30:00","slug":"how-to-deal-with-grief-and-loneliness-during-the-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-deal-with-grief-and-loneliness-during-the-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"How to deal with grief and loneliness during the holiday season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A snowstorm, accompanied by high winds, may have knocked fall leaves to the ground sooner than expected in Southwest Colorado. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the time of year where there seems to be a societal expectation that we are all joyous and celebrating,\u201d said Micki Burns, chief clinical officer at Aurora-based bereavement center Judi\u2019s House. \u201cSo when you\u2019re grieving and bereaved, it\u2019s often hard to be able to join into that collective spirit, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emotions related to grief aren\u2019t just caused by a death in the family, according to Burns. She said any kind of loss \u2013 like drastically changing one\u2019s living situation \u2013 can cause grief. And because of the wide spectrum of the emotion, everyone\u2019s coping and healing mechanisms are different.<\/p>\n

Burns said the first step to deal with grief during the holidays is to think about your personal needs and what you would like to see in the moment. Grief doesn\u2019t have a one-size-fits-all bandage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven within a family, what one person wants and another can vary very much,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Burns said one way she advises clients to process grief is to find ways to memorialize those they lost.<\/p>\n

Some people\u2019s grief may manifest through feelings of loneliness. Stevi Ibonie, a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Colorado, researches social relationships and how they impact mental health. She said feelings of loneliness may be exacerbated during the holidays, when families traditionally get together for celebrations.<\/p>\n

Ibonie said those who feel lonely should take advantage of modern technology that has made it easier for people to connect with their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can even sort of sync up and ask them if they want to make a recipe with you on video call and make it together to try and keep those bonds strong, even when there\u2019s distance or play games together remotely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Getting offline is important, too. Ibonie recommends hitting the outdoors for a hike or just sitting at a park, which can boost mental health.<\/p>\n

Ibonie added that the onus for dealing with loneliness and grief shouldn\u2019t fall entirely on those experiencing the emotions. She said community members should look out for each other and extend a hand to people struggling to find connections.<\/p>\n

Both Burns and Ibonie recommend keeping an eye out for community events and support groups that allow people to collectively address difficult feelings. For those in the metro Denver area, the LIGHT Movement is holding a \u201cNight to Illuminate Grief\u201d at the First Plymouth Congregational Church in Englewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A snowstorm, accompanied by high winds, may have knocked fall leaves to the ground sooner than expected in Southwest Colorado. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)cca \u201cIt\u2019s the time of year where there seems to be a societal expectation that we are all joyous and celebrating,\u201d said Micki Burns, chief clinical officer at Aurora-based bereavement center Judi\u2019s House. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[755,120,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-christmas","tag-colorado","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30037"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}