How love shapes grief and loss

Grief and loss is the response to losing something important, especially a person or animal with whom we share a bond, but also things such as health, work, or a relationship. What can grief and remembrance help us understand about the ways love shapes our response to loss? The lessons consider how love and connection continue to matter in grieving and remembering.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 57 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   grief and loss · Wikipedia · 50 min read

   A historical example of profound spousal grief is Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's grief after his wife Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 during childbirth. Contemporary accounts describe Shah Jahan as "paralyzed by grief"; in response to his loss, he commissioned the Taj Mahal as her mausoleum, widely regarded as a monument to enduring love and grief. In Japan, maintaining ties with the deceased is accepted and carried out through religious rituals. An analysis of non-Western cultures suggests that beliefs about continuing ties with the deceased vary. Bo Winegard and colleagues argued that grief might be a socially selected signal of a person's propensity to form strong, committed relationships. From this perspective, grief signals that the griever can form strong social commitments to old and new social partners.

2. Read
   

   How to Face Grief in Yourself and Others · Greater Good Magazine · 3 min read

   On grieving the loss of a loved one, JS says, "The thing that helps most when people are suffering is the love of others." When people lose love, they seek it.

3. Watch
   

   How children process death and grief differently than adults | Kelsey Chittick & Peter Attia, M.D. · YouTube · 4 min watch

   Kelsey Chittick and Peter Attia, M.D., discuss how children process death and grief differently than adults.

4. Book
   

   The Light We Lost · Bookshop.org

   The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo describes how a long relationship unfolds and the loss and lasting emotional ties that follow it.

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