Grief Is Often Misunderstood By Religions
Healing from grief can be more difficult than you think. If you have never suffered the pain of grief, then it is very hard to empathize with the suffering that someone experiences when the loss of a loved one is the only thing on that person's mind. No amount of frivolous statements offering plastic-coated comfort can help and to compound matters, your religious beliefs may preclude you from experiencing the reality of the continuation of life after death.
In some religions of the world, it seems that a belief in the afterlife is not at the forefront of the teachings and the attitude towards death can often do more damage than good. When someone is not allowed to move through the process of grief and is forced to carry out a ritual that is not in alignment with the individual's soul, then damage often sets in very quickly. The grief that is being experienced, is often worse and healing is often a long way off.
You can't heal from Grief - You must learn to move through it
The truth is often quite hard to accept and when you read the statement above, it almost makes you feel bad when you consider that you may not be able to heal from grief. Allow me to explain this better. Grief is part of life in this plane of understanding. It is an emotion that teaches us great lessons, such as love, divinity, compassion and above all - forgiveness. It is not something that you heal from but is an emotion that you must experience in order to learn lessons and to grow spiritually. Grief, however, will always be with you, but in time it will come to be a part of you. Like a child who cries, you learn to comfort it through the conditional love that you show. As the child of grief becomes a part of you once more, your loved ones can clearly see once again through the fog that you created. They want to communicate and let you know they are well and around you. But if your belief is not in alignment, then you distance yourself from them.
When belief blocks the communication and stops you healing from grief
When your religion or your circumstance, including your learned environments have a tunneled vision of life, then it is often quite impossible for you to experience any form of communication from your loved ones on the other side. Did you know that all they want is to show you they still live and are unhindered from the shackles that earthly life confined them to? If you could see how happy they are, if you could awaken to the loving messages they continually send you, then you would know that life continues and that you are not hindered by man's weak perceptions that often do more damage than good. You can then move toward experiencing your grief and learn what you need to learn quickly.
If you follow a particular religion that places no emphasis on the afterlife, then you risk causing more suffering to yourself and others around you. It is quite clear that some religions such as Buddhism, Baha'i Faith, Bon, Atheism (sort of religious belief) Confucianism, do not place much emphasis on the afterlife and therefore when someone experiences that loss, if the loss has a crippling effect, they are excluded from moving through the grief process in a way that could help them suffer less. When their loved ones try and communicate with them in the subtle ways of the soul, it is often unnoticed and unnecessary suffering continues. An individual suffering from grief may, of course, not follow any particular faith and still have an unyielding fear of life hereafter, which is normally an ingrained belief from family members of the past or through educational understandings; this person also suffers just as much as the individual who follows a particular faith.
Imagine Less Grief
Imagine if you will, not feeling that fear, the loss, and the hurt when you can no longer see the smile on the face of your loved one, not hearing them or seeing the signs of them around you. Imagine if that did not exist and that your loved ones can and do communicate with you. If you could learn the language of the soul, then you would be able to accept your grief, comfort your grief like your child and feel your loved ones more alive and vibrant as they were. The truth is, your loved ones do communicate and in the quiet of your mind, in the spark of your soul, exists the energy of love that is the bond that never breaks, that comforts you when needed and exists eternally. You need not suffer anymore, so allow yourself to move through grief and do not be imprisoned by dogmatic belief.