As you might have noticed, beliefs and meanings are not static but change. They can change with time and with your changed perspective.
GPS (Grieving Parents Support) REFLECTION & INSIGHT:
Take a moment and reflect on your grief journey. Get your grief journey notebook and write down your insights to the following questions: Think about your beliefs and how you assign meaning and ask yourself:
- What do you believe about your child’s death?
- How have your beliefs about your child’s death changed over time?
- What does your child’s death mean to you?
- What does your child’s death mean to your partner?
- Are there other meanings that it could have? What would / could they be?
- If your child’s death had a special meaning that you could choose, what would that be?
Come back to this page and answer the questions multiple times during your grief journey and see how they change and develop.
Meaning Creation
Creating meaning means to consciously choose the frames we put onto a situation. Start using these questions to create purposeful meanings:
- What does this mean to me? What else does it mean?
-> listen to the many things you hold in your mind about the reference
-> be mindful of the different levels and layers of meaning - Is this meaning helpful or hurtful?
- What will I gain or lose if I assign more helpful meanings?
- What will I gain or lose if I assign more hurtful meanings?
- Am I ready to reframe this meaning?
- What else could it mean? What else would l like it to mean?
- What other meaning would I like to create out of this experience?
- What specific help do I need to create this meaning?