SELF COMPASSION

Grief asks us to develop capacities we did not need before.

In this series, we’ve explored two of them: perspective and faith. The third is different.
It is less visible but more intimate, more demanding, and more healing:

Self-compassion.

Grief can take many forms.

For some, it is relatively ordered and steady.
For others, it is a year of upheaval.
And for many, it is a dark night of the soul:
a complete dismantling and rebuilding of identity.

It all depends on the type, timing, and intensity of the loss.

But no matter the form, grief is a developmental passage.
It asks something of us. It changes us.

And no one moves through grief without expanding, whether they realize it or not, one essential capacity:

Self-compassion.

In fact, self kindness may be the central developmental task of grief.

And here is the subtle, beautiful paradox: