The Grief Project

It is no secret that in Western Culture, we have a very skewed idea of how grief should be looked at in relation to most other cultures. Grief is not only seen as a negative emotion that should be concealed from the world, but on average, in the workforce, bereavement time is limited to 3 days and immediate family only. Three days to mourn your loved one and suppress them enough to compose yourself and go back to work, go back into society as if it never happened. Five stages of grief, three days, and then back to ‘normal life’ as if nothing happened.  Arguably, this makes the process harder, internalizing it and suppressing that ever-present pain until you are behind closed doors, and only when you are alone are you allowed to express that grief. Grief is seen as something jarring and ugly, unsightly. We are told that we ‘are not alone’ and yet the idea of attending a grief circle is treated as taboo and something you should be ashamed of, much like how we treat NA meetings or anything involving support from others concerning deep emotions. With my project “The Grief Sessions,” I want to counter this idea that grief is to be hidden, sharing stories of other people's grief processes and allowing the space to talk about the ones they love.