Losing someone can be one of the hardest experiences we have as humans.  In today’s podcast I share with you 8 ways you can support others through grief.   Show Summary   Today I want to about grief.  An amazing man who recently moved out of my ward and neighborhood passed away on Saturday and a lot of my thoughts have been centered around him, his wife, their family, and then reflecting back to other times when people I know have grieved and when I have as well.   I’ve experienced a lot of grief in my life, and it’s never something that is easy, but the way we think about the person, the situation, and the death, makes a big difference in how we experience grief.   For example - I’ve mentioned before that my Grandma passed away a few months ago.  She was in her mid 80’s, she had lived a long full life.  She had suffered from dementia the last few years and had had two broken hips in the last 6 months.  And while I love her deeply, and I was still so sad that she was gone and I wouldn’t  be able to talk with her and take care of her anymore, for me, I think of her death as a blessing.  She wasn’t suffering anymore.  She had lived a long full life, and I had done what I could to love her and take care of her to the very end.     Now contrast that with another experience.  When I was 10-years old, my moms entire family was on vacation at lake and my 3-year old brother drowned and later passed away.  My entire family was heartbroken.  It was tragic.  We didn’t see it coming.  It wasn’t expected.  And it caused a lot of turmoil and grief in the lives of my entire family.  The grief consumed us for a long period of time.  It was awful.     So today I want to go over 8 points on how you can support others and yourself through grief.   Realize that grief is that it is different for everyone and every situation Everyone experiences it differently and its different in every situation.   Even if someone has gone through the exact same thing, their thoughts shape how they feel about it just as your thoughts shape how you feel about it. For example - I had a miscarriage in between my 2nd and 3rd child.  I was only a few weeks along and because I had had 2 healthy pregnancies already, it wasn’t something that I was prepared for at all.  The day that it happened I was pretty upset by it.  I was sad that it was happening, but my thoughts were more along the lines of “I’m not sure why this is happening, but God knows best.  Maybe there would have been something wrong with this baby and God knows what I can handle.  I will be ok.  Everything will be ok.”  And I was able to recover physically and emotionally pretty well from it. Another person may experience the exact same thing quite differently and I know plenty of women who have.  And their grief is valid!  It is their experience.  It may be absolutely devastating to them and I totally understand that.  Just because that wasn’t my experience, doesn’t make it any less valid or important.  It was a loss for them and they are allowed to grieve however they want. I do want to point out again that our feelings come directly from our thoughts.  So while my thoughts about my miscarriage helped me recover fairly quickly, and someone else’s thoughts about theirs are different and maybe they struggle with it more, BOTH are valid.  But our feelings about it, do come directly from our thoughts and if you are choosing to stay in pain longer, that is totally fine. Meet the person where THEY are Because everyone deals with grief differently, it’s important to find out where that person is in their grief how to best support them. Some people want to be surrounded by family and friends and some people want to be left alone or to grieve with just a small support group For some it may help them feel better hearing about others experiences, while some just want to focus on their own grief and not hear about others. Some people want to stay busy to keep their minds and bodies from breaking dow