Will grief turn to joy?

            Grief is an emotion that seems to take all joy from us when you are experiencing it.  Therefore, it is only natural to question if you will feel joy again while you are going through grief.  The stages of grief that you will likely experience are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  As you go through these stages, make sure to keep in mind that you can experience these in a variety of orders, and you can experience a previously experienced stage more than once.  For example, you could get to acceptance, but then a holiday comes around that makes you think of the person you lost, and that holiday could take you back to a previous experienced stage, such as depression.  Remember that experiencing grief takes time and there is no science around how long it will take to get through it. 

            As you get to a place of acceptance with your grief, you can start to get some joy back.  When you are experiencing grief, your body will produce less happy hormones, such as serotonin. However, when you start to get to a place of acceptance, your body will begin to release those happy hormones again, which can help you to feel joy again.  Things that typically make you happy, might not bring you happiness when you are in the middle of grief.  Once you are coming out of grief, those things should start to bring back some joy and happiness. 

            Some people are able to achieve moments of joy by thinking of what the person they lost would want for their life.  Maybe there are even things that you two used to do together that they would be happy for you to continue to do.  For example, if you two used to always go to concerts of your favorite musician, continuing to go to those concerts could help you feel some joy because you know they would want you to continue to like the musician.  Some people even think about what you have learned from their life and following through with those lessons can help you to feel some joy.