Grief is a process, not a singular emotion.

So there are usually lots of feelings + experiences in the mix (not just sadness).

Two that I see a lot of in my grief work are anxiety + boredom.

This sometimes confuses folks.

They might even feel disappointed or frustrated that the cathartic flow of deep sorrow feels out of reach.

But whatever we’re feeling is always the next step.

What’s real now is always the way in.

Even if that’s something like anxiety or boredom.

And to me, it actually makes a lot of sense that anxiety + boredom come up so often in grief.

Because these are the feelings that tend to rise up when we’re approaching the deep questions + big feelings + murky spaces + painful hurts.

They're what happens when the space we’re walking into feels too deep, too real, too much, or too scary.

And they usually come with urges to distract ourselves -- to step away + avoid the painful, overwhelming, confusing, or deeper thing.

But like any emotion, boredom + anxiety are simply invitations into presence + realness.

So what do we do with them?

Sit with them awhile. Feel them in the body. Notice the uncomfortable thing under the surface. Remember nothing has gone wrong.

This is simply where grief or life or being human is taking us today.

And important + beautiful things happen when we let our feelings exist as they are (+ when we let ourselves exist as we are, whatever we're feeling).

What might that look like for you today?