10 Ways To Honor Your Loved One

Experiencing grief can be one of the most challenging phases of life. It can make you feel powerless and lose focus in life. However, finding avenues to heal is essential to help you move on and benefit your mental health.

Grief is a normal phase of life; however, it can be pretty intense when it hits closer to home. There have been cases where people get into depression while some turn to alcohol and drugs to ease the process. As a parent, coping with the loss of your child can be devastating. Unfortunately, there is no tailor-suit way to cope with grief.

Grief has five stages. Acceptance being the last stage, you come to terms with the loss and focus on moving on. At this stage, honouring your loved one becomes part of your life. Finally, you get comfortable enough to celebrate your loved one’s anniversaries.

Here are few tips to keep the memories of your loved one alive:

Plant a Tree

A significant way of honouring life is through recreating one. Planting a tree in honour of your loved one will create a sense of connection. A tree represents life. If you are a great believer in the afterlife, then a tree would be a great way to keep the memory of your loved ones alive.

The tree would be a perfect symbol of water during an anniversary.

Memorial Service

Gone but not forgotten. These words echo in almost every funeral service. A memorial service can be a way of bringing back the forgotten memories. You don’t have to make it a formal event, the less formal, the less sad it will be.

Gather your close friends and family and enjoy an activity that your loved one once did. You can hold a picnic and have everyone say something memorable about your loved one.

Knowing about different aspects of your loved one’s life can help with the healing process and help you appreciate their life more.

Memorable Resting Place

Just as your loved one had a nice place to live while on earth, you should also accord them a similar stay while under. Placing flowers on the gravesite can make the site more colourful and cheerful. If you cremate your loved one, you could create a memorial place with an engraving of their name to honour their existence.

You can include churchyard headstones with their name and respective dates of birth and death for gravesites. An additional emboss of colour or a poem or song you once shared will signify the memory.

Set a Bird Free

Releasing a pure white dove can be a great way to honour your loved one. Doves symbolize peace, love, hope, and soul. For some, releasing a dove creates a feeling of hope for the departed loved ones. It is also a gentle way of letting go and accepting one’s path.

You can include it as an activity during the memorial service or during the burial.

Create a Legacy

A great way to keep your loved one’s ambitions alive is through setting a legacy in their name. Most folks opt to contribute to a charitable organization. This highly depends on the financial capacity of your family.

You can also create a scholarship foundation in their name and help make other people’s lives better.

Create a Memorable Video

In your daily quest to survive in this world, you might forget to slow down and appreciate the little intricacies. For example, a sudden loss in the family makes you value the single moments shared with a loved one. One way to ensure your entire family experiences this is with a fantastic video.

You can get help from the rest of your family members and collect videos or photos taken of your loved one. Your video can tell a story of your loved one’s journey.

A memorable video will make those in attendance celebrate and appreciate your loved one’s life.

Create a Bucket List

Death is an unforeseen event. If you knew when you would most likely die, you’d make sure to finish what you started. But, instead, death can grapple you at your most vulnerable moment, taking away a life-long’s worth of hard work and commitment.

Your loved one’s departure may have put activities or tasks pending that they were once excited about. You can take this as your project and attempt to finalize them.

Your loved one may have always wanted to travel and explore certain places. In their honour, travelling to these places will bring a sense of accomplishment. You can personalize the trip by carrying one of the personal items to symbolize them accomplishing the goal.

Celebrate Their Birthday Party

It may seem down heartening to celebrate your loved one’s birthday, but it has significant benefits. First, celebrating their birthday is a way of acknowledging that their soul lives on. Second, it is a reminder of the good times you once shared and held closely.

A birthday is a great way to celebrate their life with family and friends annually. With your loved one’s departure, you can still honour his afterlife existence by celebrating the years they would have lived.

It would be a great idea to include their favourite dishes as part of the meals.

Light a Candle

Lighting a candle for your loved one symbolizes reflection and remembrance. You can date this act far back to the onset of Christianity, where light represents life. A memorial candle is an ideal way of celebrating a lost life and signifying their remembrance.

You can personalize your memorial candle by including a photo or a tribute to your loved one. Seeing the glow of the light behind your loved one’s image signifies their memory still existing among you.

For an everlasting burn, you can consider the use of electric or battery-powered candles.

Dedicate an Event

One way to bring your family closer in honour of your loved one is through the annual commemoration of an event. For example, if your loved one were a sports fanatic, getting your family on board during the Super Bowl would be an ideal way of paying tribute.

Family events can help ease the grief process as a collective and create appreciation and inspiration for your loved ones’ passion.

Finally, mourning a loved one takes considerable time. It would be best if you surround yourself with healthy and mindful activities to help with the process. Seeing a grief counsellor can help you recognize the different stages and set you on a path of recovery.