How To Navigate The Loss Of A Loved One As A Career Woman

Balancing work and home life can feel like a juggling act that may not always flow. Many career women find themselves missing out on family birthdays, holidays, and important life events due to their drive, ambitions, and will to accomplish their goals. However, experiencing loss is inevitable, and when it happens, it puts a lot of things into perspective.

If you’re a millennial woman looking to find ways to navigate the loss of a loved one while still pursuing your dreams, Her Agenda has gathered some insight that may help.

Although work can be a great distraction, it won’t take away the loss of a loved one, and the pain you may feel. By allowing yourself to be still and sit in the realization that you’ll no longer see that family member, you’re allowing yourself to let go of that person and what they meant to you. This doesn’t mean you forget about them, but you continue life and learn to live without them.

According to NBC News, for our own health, we shouldn’t stop or delay grieving. We have to go through it, and while we can’t control it all, we can take measures to make it manageable while we’re maintaining other obligations.

Guilt can be overwhelming when death is involved. Don’t allow guilt to rear its ugly head and make you feel worse because you weren’t around as much as you would like. No one ever said chasing dreams would be easy. As a career woman, you have to sacrifice time often, and most times your family suffers, but that doesn’t make you a bad person for going after your goals.

Help Guide says, don’t judge yourself, think that you should be behaving in a different way, or try to impose a timetable on your grief. Grieving someone’s death takes time. For some people, that time is measured in weeks or months, for others it’s in years.

According to Help Guide, when you lose someone you love, it’s normal to want to cut yourself off from others and retreat into your shell. But this is no time to be alone. Even when you don’t feel able to talk about your loss, simply being around other people who care about you can provide comfort and help ease the burden of bereavement.

Call on your “true blues” since diapers, your high school and college friends, co-workers that have become friends, and your peers that understand completely how you feel. Career woman to career woman is unmatched when it comes to the fast-paced lifestyle, always on the go, never enough hours in a day, getting home late just to come back to the office three to four hours later. Enlist people who know and love you to help you through this trying time.

Death will force you to change your perspective on life. Losing a loved one simply makes you aware that you have to cherish the short time we have here. No matter how busy you may be, arrange time in your schedule to make a brief call to your parents, elderly family members, nieces and nephews, and so forth during the week. That short call could change the entire trajectory of someone’s day– even yours.

Indeed states, establishing your core values means identifying what’s important in your life. When you understand what you want and enjoy the most, you might find it easier to balance your work and family life. Consider reviewing each aspect of your life and seeing if it contributes to your mission.