Winter time in Ohio has never really been my favorite season. Darkness. It almost at times feels like it chokes out the light. The earth around us fallen dormant. Animals retreat to their dens, the earth lacks color, and we are left to power through a  cold dark season.

As I tread the treacherous waters of grief I have found myself finding ways to combat depression and grief. To meet the storms head on. To allow it to bring me to my weakest moments on this earth.

It seems like the more I understand grief, depression, and the  darkness that closes in the more I want to climb my way out. The more I cling to the strong truths in my life.

I oftentimes feel like a buoy out at sea. Getting tossed around by low and high tides. I use this arsenal to combat the tides and sometimes my friends the storms can be straight wicked.

Why does society tell us to get over it, move on, power through?

In being in the midst of it right now myself. The high tides, the low tides, the moments that I have out on my raft in the sun, moments when the storm hits without any warning and all the moments in between.

I have realized it’s not about powering through. It’s about feeling every part.

How about lean into the waves, allow yourself to be saturated by the waters, embracing the root of sadness, depression and utter brokenness.

It’s in my most weakest moments, clinging to brokenness, seeing my soul straight shattered on the floor, that I see a healing salve being placed on the hole in my heart.

The  salve slowly heals one broken area. Then I feel as if I’m in high tide once more. yet again to return to low tide as the next part starts to slowly heal.

Below are a few ways I have learned how to combat the tides and waves of grief

1. God.  I start each day with a daily devotional and journal afterwards. ” For with God nothing shall be impossible.” -Luke 1:37
2. Family and friends. I don’t quite know where to begin. They have always been there and continue to be a support on this voyage. I truly feel closer to them than I ever have. They help in ways in which they may not even know. I have a few close friends that I disclose the tough stuff with, they love me no matter where I am at in any moment, place no judgment of where I should be, and we laugh together. Yes, to be silly and escape the sadness has been so life giving in the midst of all of this.
3. Community. I have my church community, my workout community, and my grief community. Each community aids in whatever I may need on a given day or moment. I have been blessed to be able to connect with my grief community through a blog called:http://www.scribblesandcrumbs.com 
4. My workout. If you know me I love a good sweat pumping workout. It’s my release, it’s where I process and talk to God, and it fuels my day. There is something to be said about the sweet cadence of my shoes hitting the pavement, my lungs burning on a cold winters day that resonates a sense of if I can make it putting one foot forward on this run, then I can make it through grief.
5. I want to learn, I want to learn about other people who have walked the lonely road of grief (although my tender heart constantly breaks for them that they to had too experience it). I want to read all I can about it. The more I understand it the more I see hope as others who have gone before me and who have had victory. When they write it’s like they are taking emotions and thoughts right out of my brain. A couple of my favorites to date are: Through the Eyes Of A Lion, By: Levi Lusko, Choosing to See, By: Mary Beth Chapman, Restless, By: Jennie Allen, Battlefield of the mind, By: Joyce Meyer and A Grace Disguised, By Gary Sittser.
6. My Counselor.  She is one of the most Godly women I have ever met. She has taught me so much about where I am currently at, about how to cope and given me insight of how to move forward.

This is my personal arsenal to combat grief it helps as the tides, waves, ebb and flow. I am just so thankful that I have these things to aid in the healing process. 

Today as you are walking through life, I hope wherever you are that this has helped provide you insight if you are experiencing hardship of ways to cope, battle and conquer life’s high and rough waters.

Soon the darkness will give way to much brighter days as the heart becomes more mended.