Have you wanted to use writing for healing grief?  There are many paths. First, it is important to understand whether this approach is right for you at this time.  As with any healing process, you may be ready for different endeavors at different times.  To be ready to add creativity into your healing it is important to feel stable enough so that you won’t be derailed emotionally by the material that comes up.  This means that you may want to have a therapist or doctor if you are on medication to help you decide if this approach is right for you.  Sometimes dipping your pen or a crayon onto paper may give you some idea of how you will react.  If the writing or drawing, painting, collage, etc. is too upsetting or brings up difficult symptoms of anxiety or depression, then it is good to give yourself a little time before you try again. Learning how to follow your intuition (wise mind) about this is very helpful.

If you want to try writing, and are having trouble getting started, you could start with images, memories, and stories about the person you are grieving.  In Perie Longo’s book of poetry With Nothing Behind but Sky, written during and after the loss of her husband, several memories and evocative images show up throughout–her husband taking his last breath, and her husband returning either in dreams, signs, or fantasies that he would actually return.  What are the memories, images, colors, things about the person you have lost that you could write down?  Did they have beautiful hands, love wearing a certain color, did their hair shine a certain way in the light, or were they going bald?  Were they old or young, like a tree or a mountain, what are your first memories of them?  Start with lists of free writing and see how it feels.   This could lead to a story or a poem.

Some people find it very comforting to have this way of making meaning and remembrance for their beloved lost one.  I hope it will be helpful for you.