Grief is a process all of us go through at times, and while it’s experienced differently among individuals, for many it can be debilitating. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do that may help.

1. Get Enough Sleep and Stay Healthy

If you’re not physically healthy, the grieving process can be much harder. Sleep is something many tend to treat as unimportant. According to one survey, a third of adults in the U.S. don’t get enough sleep. Unfortunately, insufficient sleep can wreak havoc on your physical and mental health. Inadequate or poor-quality sleep is linked to diabetes, depression, anxiety, obesity, and heart disease. You won’t be doing yourself any favors getting through the grieving process without adequate sleep.

Getting good sleep means understanding and practicing proper sleep hygiene. Do you have a habit of using your phone before bed? Screens, such as those on cell phones, emit blue light that tells our brains it’s time to wake up. If you’re looking at a screen in bed, you’re associating being in bed with staying awake instead of sleeping. This is just one example of poor sleep hygiene, but there are many more, such as drinking alcohol or using stimulants such as coffee too soon before bed. As well as your sleep, attend to your other health needs. For example, you can find relief in neck and back care by visiting Euclid Chiropractic.

2. Start a Journal

Keeping a journal may be something you stopped doing after your teenage years, but perhaps you should keep that habit going. Journaling is known to have several benefits for mental health, including reducing stress, boosting your mood, and improving your memory. By writing down what you feel and what your day-to-day life is like while experiencing grief, you can better organize your thoughts and keep track of things that both help and harm you each day that you otherwise wouldn’t notice on your own. In the context of grieving, journaling may be a vital coping tool.

Perhaps best of all, journaling can help you process your feelings. If you’re not sure exactly what to write in your journal, follow prompts that can guide you on the right path. Perhaps you’d prefer stream-of-consciousness journaling, in which you simply write everything you think and feel as it comes to you.

3. Take a Trip, See a Ballgame

A change of scenery can help you find a new perspective for your feelings as you grieve. While almost anywhere that can detach you from your typical place of grief may work, one idea is traveling to Upland, California.

Visit the California Botanic Garden, where you can find things like yoga classes or pressed plant collecting, or maybe ax-throwing is more your thing. If you’re a sports fan, you can catch a Dodgers game. There are resources online to get you tickets at a discount. You’ll be able to specify what kind of seats you want through filtering by price range, seat rating, and date. Some sites even have interactive seating charts of the seats so you can get a 360-degree view of what it’s like to sit there. Events like these can help you temporarily separate from your grief so you can come back to it with a fresh perspective.

If you’re going through grief, you may not be sure how to best process your emotions. The grieving process, while necessary, can be even harder if you don’t take care of yourself. Hopefully, these tips will make everything now a bit easier.