Death and catastrophic events can cause great grief in your life and sometimes, it seems as it is too hard to go on. There are no wrong or right answers in trying to allay grief. Each person handles difficult times differently. Taking one day at a time is the best advice anyone can give along with following some of these strategies:

1. Acknowledge your feelings and realize that being frightened, happy, sad and even mad are all normal. You will also likely feel quite a few conflicting emotions too. They will sneak up on you at odd times. Some will last for months and others for days. You may be fine for weeks at a time when something triggers those sad feelings and you grieve all over again.

It is important that you recognize the difference between true grief and depression. Grief can be healing eventually whereas depression can trigger responses that you normally would not do like hurting yourself.

2. In order to get a handle on your grief, you should try and avoid other depressing situations like watching the news. As anyone knows, the news is full of depressing news stories of catastrophes, war, destruction and death. You cannot adequately grieve and heal if your raw emotions are constantly bombarded by visages and sounds of depressing thoughts and situations.

3. Keep in touch with family and friends in the community. Seek out grief counseling and support groups. You need an outlet to express your thoughts and feelings, preferably with someone else who understands. Get involved with volunteer activities in your community to take a break from your emotions and keep yourself involved in the land of the living. Helping others is a great way to help your self.

4. Taking care of you is important. Going through the motions of your routine - school, work, cooking dinner, carpooling - helps get your life back to normal, or at least a more even keel. You must get enough sleep and exercise. Eating right is essential to maintain your health, even when you do not feel like it. Force yourself to find a hobby or get away for a day or two. You need to find a way to re-charge yourself so that when you get back to your regular life, grief does not weight you down.

5. For those who are religious or take comfort in the church, pray for healing, not only for your self but also friends and loved ones affected by death or difficult times. Seeking solace in your faith can be comforting and believing in a higher power will set your mind at ease so that you can be more at peace.

6. Write in a diary or journal. Putting pen to paper and expressing your thoughts and feelings could help you through your grief. It can also serve as a way to measure your growth and resilience. Seeing how far you have come in your grief during the healing process helps you gain perspective. Writing is cathartic and one of the best ways to release those negative emotions, especially if you wish to not seek the advice of a counselor or therapist.