Navigating Grief: There Is No One Way Through

Grief has a way of reshaping the world around us. Even if we’ve experienced loss before, each new one can feel raw and unfamiliar. As both a mental health nurse practitioner and someone who has recently navigated personal loss, I’ve seen how the way we talk about grief—especially the idea of “stages”—can unintentionally create pressure or confusion. In this post, I explore what the stages of grief mean, how they show up in real life, and why there’s no single path through mourning. Your grief is valid, and it doesn’t have to look a certain way to be honored.