New Journal Prompt: Life After Loss
This month’s journal prompt will be about life after loss and expressing a fear or sadness you have about living your life without your loved one.
I started writing and sharing my story and found it so healing. Journaling can be therapeutic, bring comfort and help us in the grieving process.
This year I will be sending 12 journal prompts to my email subscribers, one each month. I will be sharing my answers, and if you’re comfortable, I would love to read and share yours! Everything will be kept anonymous. This month we will be exploring our feelings from life after loss. Life after loss can feel so intimidating. Especially as we think about facing the future without our loved ones.
I am so excited for this project. I know as we journal together, we will find community, acceptance, and support. I want you to know your responses are, for lack of better word, sacred to me. Thank you sharing your story. We can do this, this big impossible thing, of healing. Life is a trip, join my caravan as we journal and heal together!
As we dive into this journal prompt, I hope we can find healing together as we explore life after loss. Sometimes we need to address the painful things in order to heal, and I want to remind you to get help with a professional grief therapist or confide in a friend as you go about this. You are not alone!
March Journal Prompt: Life After Loss
Express a fear or sadness you have about living your life without your loved one.
My Answer: The future without Justin
fills me with a profound sadness and deep fears, each emotion distinct yet intertwined. Life after loss is so daunting. One fear that grips me is contemplating how it will impact my boys to grow up without a father, and not just any father but Justin—a man of unparalleled kindness and patience. His beautiful attributes are ones I wish my children could learn directly from him. Justin loved wholeheartedly, treating me like a queen, and I wish they could have witnessed a man who loved his wife with such sincerity and depth. The thought of them missing out on experiencing his unique brand of love is a heartache that lingers.
Last Month’s Journal Prompt: Community Responses
What specific memories, places, or objects tend to trigger feelings of grief for you? Reflect on experiences or situations that stir up intense emotions related to loss.
Reflecting on the memories, places, and objects that prompt my specific grief triggers is an emotionally raw journey, one that takes me to the depths of my heartache with each recollection. As I’ve progressed through my grief journey, I find that my grief triggers evolve, shifting in intensity and significance.
Certain places act as a reminder of the person I lost and the life we could have had. For instance, our first home together is a grief trigger for me.
I had to drive in that area for an appointment a couple months ago and as soon as I started driving down the road near our old home a flood of emotions came in. I felt that if I just drove to that home in that very moment, he would be waiting for me. Like coming home from a long day at work ready to welcome me with a big hug. The memories started to flood in and the life we had almost didn’t feel real. I really try to avoid that area because I know it’s a grief trigger for me. Maybe someday I’ll be able to drive by without feeling such grief and sorrow.
Recently my grief triggers have been as simple as my boys asking questions about my husband. The other day they were asking questions about our wedding day because they had been looking at pictures. I always talk about it with them in the moment with lots of enthusiasm, celebrating his memory, but I do have to retreat to solitude and need time to myself to feel the grief. Feeling the grief of the future and what life could have been if he were here instead of talking about him in the past tense with my kids.
Navigating these grief triggers is like wading through an ocean of emotions, each wave threatening to engulf me in its relentless tide of grief. Yet amidst the pain, there is a reminder that these triggers are a testament to the depth of our bond and love. I’m trying to embrace the triggers and just ride the waves of emotions as I get through them. I realize it’s all part of the grief journey.
Community Response
From anonymous:
“In the beginning of my grief journey, almost anything was a trigger- driving past our first apartment, filling out a form and not knowing if I should circle married or single because widow wasn’t an option, or attending a friend’s wedding.
Now that almost two years have passed, I feel like my grief triggers have become more unpredictable, because they are occurring less and less. Lately, in the moment when a grief trigger occurs- like a random memory, or hearing a specific song, I tend to feel like I’ve completely forgotten the tools I’ve learned to cope, and I find myself struggling to ground myself in the moment, by taking a deep breath and reminding myself that the moment will pass.”
Thank you for sharing your journey with us!
Life’s A Trip, Join My Caravan for Community and Support
Subscribe to my email to get monthly journal prompts like this one, and if you’d like to share how you’ve come to terms with life after loss, be sure to comment here or respond to my email. I know that as we caravan together in this grief journey we can help each other through. Navigating grief can be difficult alone. Join my caravan for support and let me know how I can help. Follow me on Instagram for more community and support.
Caravan Community Read their stories
Trials touch us all. A year ago, I shared my story to offer support, but I never expected the flood of messages from others facing hardships. Their strength inspired me to create Caravan Community, a space on my blog to share their stories. You have a story to share I’d love to feature you on my blog. You can also read their stories below. Life after loss doesn’t have to be lonely.