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1. Allow your grief. Accept that it is a natural response to your loss. It is natural to feel sorrow, anger, remorse, regret, and longing.
2. Express your grief. When you feel an emotion, go with it. Don’t suppress your pain or pretend to feel stoic. You have to express your pain to free yourself from it.
3. Keep busy. Do not dwell in your sorrow. As time passes, keep busy to avoid obsessing and lessen your mental suffering.
4. Add new activities and people. These elements are stimulating and nourishing. Your life will be different without your parent, so accept that and include other differences in your daily routine.
5. Stay in touch with people who support you. Love the people who you still can love, and let them love you. Keep talking and sharing with friends and family.
6. Join a support group (like Students of AMF!). This will help you beat isolation and loneliness. Your healing can be helped by a group of people with whom to share your feelings and memories.
7. Keep a journal. Writing is a great way to express pain in a constructive manner. It also means having private time just for yourself.
8. Exercise daily. This will help you build physical strength, release tension, and keep yourself healthy. It can also boost self-esteem.
9. Be willing to accept change. Keeping things the way they were when your loved one was still alive doesn’t mean that they will be again. Embrace this change.
10. Know that healing takes time. Take care of yourself in the mean time, and know that you will never get over it, but you will get used to it.