The idea that a person should always have a positive mindset regardless of one’s life circumstances is a prevalent message in today’s society. The pressure to be positive no matter what is known as Toxic Positivity and can be harmful to a person - while there are benefits to being optimistic, toxic positivity resists all difficult emotions in place of a cheerful and often falsely-positive façade.

Mother’s Day and the days leading up to it can be hard for so many reasons. For many, this day is one that they dread instead of anticipate. This day can feel isolating when you are grieving a loss, whether it be a non-death or death loss – each loss is unique and sometimes this contributes to feelings of loneliness. It is our hope that this blog post validates your pain and lets you know that you are not alone in this. We see you and feel with you as you grapple with the range of emotions that you may be feeling this Mother’s Day weekend. In this blog, we share about the different types of grief and loss and ways you can cope with grief on the days leading up to Mother’s Day and on this day.

It is hard enough to grieve one loss and the death of one person. When you experience multiple losses, grief is experienced at a whole other level. You may be asking yourself, ‘How do I even begin grieving these losses?” A sense of confusion may arise in the process of disentangling the multiple losses – picture a large tangled ball of grief with many threads to untangle. It is no wonder that it can feel like a complex endeavour to cope with cumulative grief.

The experience of grief is made up of so many intricate and hard moments: The time when you received the life-altering news. The wailing on the other end of the phone. The tears shed. The sleepless nights and nightmares. The fear and anxiety. The painful agony that feels unescapable. The yearning for who or what you have lost. The what-ifs, if-onlys, should-haves and regrets. The questionings. The world you were familiar with, now completely altered. The stories that replay in your mind about your life that was and your life that now is. The crushed hopes for the future. Your identity in the absence of who or what you used to have.