The holidays are often a time of laughter, community and celebration. But if you’re grieving, these expectations can feel overwhelming and even painful. Whether this is your first holiday season without your loved one or decades later, the holidays can feel heavy. The contrast between what you "should" feel — happy, festive and full of cheer — and what you actually feel — sad, exhausted, wistful or even disconnected — can create a sense of guilt or confusion. It's as though your grief comes with an unspoken rule that joy is off-limits, especially during the holidays.  

But what if, this year, you gave yourself permission to feel both? What if you allowed grief and joy to exist together? 

Children’s Grief Awareness Month in November, along with Children’s Grief Awareness Day (the third Thursday of November), reminds us that children grieve differently than adults. It may feel challenging to talk about death and grief with children, but by using the right strategies, families can offer meaningful support and help children grieve.

One of the most powerful tools available for navigating this journey is through rituals like funerals and memorialization. These rituals aren’t just about saying goodbye; they’re about helping you process, remember, and begin to move forward.

After the loss of a child, nothing seems right. Your view of the world, your role, and your relationships to others seems so discombobulated. Finding support is critical, but where can you find it? What feels like support? And how do you know what you need?  

This year, we’re offering new perspectives on New Year's resolutions—ones that embrace hope and help us honor the memories of those we hold dear.

If you’re having a hard time feeling cheerful during the season of cheer, we have three tips for helping you face the coming weeks.

In this blog post, we offer advice on how to navigate the difficult emotional terrain when someone you love is terminally ill.

Helping children navigate the complex emotions that arise from a death in their life can be challenging. In this blog post, we offer three ways to help children on their grief journey.

In this blog post, we explore the challenges of grieving differently than members of your family and share tips on navigating this often uncomfortable experience.

One especially challenging aspect of grieving is how to respond to well-intentioned yet misguided questions and comments. In this month’s blog, we share a few strategies to help you navigate these types of conversations.

Writing helps many individuals through the pain of loss. Don’t know how to begin? This blog offers four writing prompts to get you started.

No matter how long it’s been since your dad passed away, Father’s Day can be a difficult holiday. In this blog post, we offer 3 ways to celebrate what your dad still means to you.

This graduation season, we’re sharing three opportunities for incorporating your loved one’s memory into your graduate’s milestone day.

Imaginative ideas for harnessing the power of spring to celebrate the family and friends you never want to forget.