The last year has been a long journey of emotional reflection, grieving, and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One big thing I observed and learnt was this: Your grief makes people around you uncomfortable.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is absolutely no one \u2014 or maybe just one or two people \u2014 in your circle with whom you can truly open up. People you think will sit with you and listen often don\u2019t even attempt to do so. The reasons may be different. The most common one is that they simply don\u2019t know what to say or how to comfort you. Another is that they don\u2019t want to reopen your wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody wants to deal with the unpleasant parts of your life. As long as you seem okay on the surface, no one feels the need to know your actual mental state. And if by chance you try to speak about it, the topic is quietly changed or ignored. I have experienced this first-hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, you being \u201cokay\u201d is familiar. It is comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You being broken, confused, or vulnerable is not.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Projecting strength is acceptable. Showing weakness isn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This was a hard fact to learn. And I learnt it the hard way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t expect everyone around me to check on me or sit through my pain. But I did expect it from a few very close ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I\u2019ve learnt through all this is simple: your grief is entirely your own. Do not expect anyone to fully understand it \u2014 not even your own family. Everyone grieves differently. There is no right or wrong way to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if people mean well, you don\u2019t have to accept everything they say. You don\u2019t have to be strong just to meet societal expectations. You are allowed to break down. You are allowed to process your grief in your own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some days feel lighter. Some days are unbearably heavy. And maybe that\u2019s just how it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what I am doing now \u2014 taking one day at a time. I listen to advice, but I do what feels right to me. I have stopped expecting others to understand my grief. This is my journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing in this blog is my way of processing it, in some small way. Maybe someday I will be able to think of Adi without tears, without my throat choking with pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That day is not today though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, I will stop trying to be understood. I will allow myself to feel it all \u2014 the ache, the silence, the love that remains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, I will continue \u2014 grieving, remembering, loving Adi in my own way. That is my truth, and I will stay with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grief is deeply personal. Not everyone knows how to sit with it, and not everyone will try. This year taught me to stop expecting understanding \u2014 and to walk my journey in my own way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11,9,8],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-journey","tag-emotional-reflections","tag-grief-journaling","tag-healing-journey","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}