What do you do or what do you tell a friend who is suffering from the loss of a loved one? How do you advise a person to rise above grief or to overcome sorrow?

Probably the most common way is to express sympathy. However, mere sympathy might not be enough to a grieving person. The pain is immensely high, especially when the loss is tragic and sudden. Unexpected loss stuns the personality.

Signs of inactivity start to creep in. In the grieving person’s mind, solitude seems to be the answer to conquer the hurt they feel inside. Letting the pain take its course and being alone for a reasonable amount of time may help in relieving the grief.

There is a tendency that during a certain period of grief, the drive or enthusiasm of the grieving individual might decrease. The only way to counteract this is by engaging in meaningful activities. Senseless brooding leads to negative results. It just increases pain. It’s as if more access are opened for pain to take its toll. The pressure brought about by pain can be mitigated in the form of physical activities.

Sports-oriented physical activities put pep into seemingly tired muscles. They get the blood circulating. Getting back to productive activities will occupy the mind, thus taking away grief. The point is to get busy. It may seem that merrymaking activities like senseless parties can make a grieved person busy to divert his attention, but these are just superficial. The result is counter-beneficial. It may take a lot of prodding to get a grieved person back to the mainstream of his life. You have to be patient. You have to get the message across him that you are concerned to bring back normality to his life. Should he sound stubborn to the point of being irritable, you must give way to understand the situation at hand. However, you must not give up pulling him out of anguish.

Having strong spiritual faith is essential in overcoming loneliness or suffering. Whatever your religion is, believing in God or in a higher power can actually do wonders in soothing the soul. It’s comforting to know that "an essence" out there is looking after everyone.

This inevitable circumstance is bound to happen. The element of time is the only variant here. Some have to go early, some late. Accepting the philosophy of life, death, and the afterlife will gradually dissipate grief.

# # # # #