Every year that Father’s Day comes around, millions of children are left feeling sad, alone and depressed. Maybe you lost your own father recently and can relate to these feelings. Whether you are a child or grown adult, dealing with Father’s Day every year can be very difficult. To deal with the emotions that Father’s Day can bring up within you, there are a few ways to remember the life of your father and acknowledge your grief in a healthy way.
One way to acknowledge the life of your father is by looking at photographs of him. You may even use Father’s Day as a way to create a collage of the happy memories that you shared with your father. This is one way that you can build happiness out of a grief-stricken process that you are likely experiencing on this day. Viewing happy photographs of you playing catch with your father or sharing an ice cream sundae with him will make you feel like he is still present in your life. For children who have lost their father, this can also be a good experience for them. Children can help design a scrapbook that is filled with all of their favorite memories of their father.
Another way to honor the life of one’s father is by sharing stories around the dinner table. This may be a better option than the photograph idea for people who are struck by photographs. Looking at photographs or creating scrapbooks may be a painful experience for people who tend to be quite visual. Telling stories can help a person feel a sense of calm and relief in remember the past. Telling stories can be done anywhere, and it is a chance for a family to become closer than they were before. You can even try to make it a fun experience by gathering around a campfire and making s’mores.
Telling stories about one’s father is also a healthy way that allows people to deal with difficult and hard emotions. Telling stories may help a child to open up about his or her loss. Keeping all of the grief within one’s self can cause issues for a person in life. By releasing the grief, a person can have a cathartic experience.
For people who have recently lost their fathers, a comforting experience may be placing flowers next to the grave site. Some people experience a tremendous sense of peace when they bring flowers to a person’s tomb stone. It can make a person feel like his or her father is still alive and present as a guiding light in life. Placing flowers next to a person’s grave site also honors that person’s life. One feels a sense of respect and honor for his or her father in this process.
Starting new traditions is one key way to also deal with the grief of Father’s Day. While the tradition may involve intense experiences like telling stories or going to a grave site, it may also include experiences that do not touch on these difficult emotions. A tradition may simply be eating at the favorite restaurant of one’s father every year or going to a baseball game for the team that one’s father loved. These are still beautiful ways to remember the life of one’s father.
Before Father’s Day comes around, take some time to consider how you will deal with the grief you experience on this day. Being prepared to handle grief on Father’s Day can ensure that you do not experience hurtful emotions that consume you. Children can also deal with their grief if certain traditions are in place to deal with emotions on Father’s Day.