Reflecting on the Year After Loss

Journalling and reflecting creates space to honour both the weight you've carried and the strength it took to get here, offering clarity when everything feels tangled.

The calendar is about to turn over, and everyone around you seems busy wrapping up their year with gratitude lists. Meanwhile, you're sitting with a year that included profound loss. A year that changed you. A year you survived, even when you weren't sure you would.

You don't need to make this year fit into anyone else's reflection template. You don't need to find silver linings or forced lessons. What you might need is permission to look at this year honestly, with all its contradictions and raw edges.

Before you read further, I'm inviting you to take three minutes. Just three. Put down your phone and sit quietly with whatever is present right now. Notice what comes up when you think about the year behind you. You don't need to fix anything. Just notice.

What questions should I ask myself when reflecting on a year of grief?

Your year deserves questions that match its complexity. Not the surface-level "what went well" prompts, but questions that make room for the truth of what you've lived through.

Here are some questions to sit with in your journal. Pick the ones that pull at something inside you:

• What did I survive this year that I didn't think I could?

• When did I feel most like myself?

• What relationships changed, and how do I feel about that?

• Where did I experience unexpected tenderness?

• What did I need this year that I couldn't ask for?

• What cultural or family expectations around grief did I struggle with most?

  
  

How do I reflect when I'm still in the middle of grief?

You don't have to have processed everything to reflect. You don't have to be "further along" or "doing better" to look back. Reflection isn't about having answers. It's about witnessing your own experience with compassion.

Maybe this year you barely survived the holidays. Maybe you changed jobs because your old workplace felt impossible after your loss. Maybe you stopped going to family gatherings because the questions and assumptions became too much. Maybe you found yourself crying in the grocery store, or laughing unexpectedly at something your person would have loved, or both in the same afternoon.

All of it counts. All of it matters.

What do I want to carry forward into the new year?

As this year closes, you get to choose what comes with you into the next one. Not everything you learned or carried this year needs to stay at the same weight.

Consider these questions:

• What coping strategy got me through but might not serve me going forward?

• What do I want to honour about how I moved through this year?

• If I could give myself one gift going into the new year, what would it be?

  
  

You Don't Have to Reflect Alone

Looking back on a year marked by loss isn't easy work. It shouldn't have to be done in isolation.

If you'd like support as you process this year and step into the next, I'd welcome the chance to walk alongside you. You can book a consultation or reach out to connect. You don't have to figure this out alone.