Grief and Pinterest

Pop Quiz!  What are some tools for exploring grief?  Go. Therapy?  Of course.  Support groups?  Yup.  Journaling?  For sure.  Art?  Definitely.  Music? Check.  Photography?  That is one of our favorites.  Pinterest?  YES.  Did I lose you on that last one?  Thought so.  Bear with me here and I'll explain.

Pinterest may not be a support group, but it really is a tool you can use in a number of helpful ways when it comes to grief.  First I guess I should make sure everyone knows what Pinterest is [Skip this paragraph if you have already wasted more hours than you wish to count pinning recipes you will never get around to making].  Pinterest is the super-duper-popular online pinboard site.  The concept is simple.  You create boards (think a bulletin board you would have in your house, but with topics).  Then from anywhere on the web if you see something cool, interesting, useful, or that you just generally want to remember you can “pin it” on one of your boards.  The image shows up on your board, then whenever you click it in the future it takes you back to the site you pinned from.

So what does Pinterest have to offer grievers?  Pinterest offers a way to create a memorial board, find motivation and inspiration, and find and organize grief resources (all that in addition to keeping track of recipes, crafts, and cute outfits).   We have four easy ideas to get you started, but the possibilities are endless.

Create a Memory Board

You may not be the scrapbooking type, but Pinterest is a great place to pin things that remind you of the person you miss.  You can leave it public, to share with your friends and family, or you can mark it ‘secret’ if you just want it to be for you.  You can pin images from anywhere on the web, or upload your own pictures.   Think of the things that remind you of your loved one - food, places, memories, hobbies, things they taught you, places you traveled together, jobs they had, songs they sang, movies they loved, cars they drove, and on and on.  If it exists on the internet it can be on your memory board.   If you have those moments that you see something online you would have loved to show your loved one, but you can't.  Pin it on your memory board instead.

Check out some other ways to commemorate loved ones:

• Four Easy, Last-Minute Ideas For Memorializing Loved Ones This Holiday
• Creating a Memorial Quilt
• Good Grief Scrapbooking for the Artistically Challenged
• Recreating Family Recipes: An Epic Fail?

Create a Board to Get You Moving

There are those days that we struggle to get off the couch or out of bed.  We are consumed by grief and just can't face the world.  Every once in a while those days are okay, cover your head and cry.  But some days we truly want (or need) to figure out how to do something, and we just can't imagine where to start.  We don't know what we want to do, we can't think of a single thing we like to do, so we continue doing nothing.  What does Pinterest have to offer?  It isn't a magic solution for those days, but you can create a board to give you some motivation on those days.  Create a collection of things you love to do - just simple, basic, things.  Don't make them complicated - keep a separate board for crafts you want to make.  If it seems too complicated you may feel too overwhelmed to do it on the days you really need it.  This is a board for the basics to get you moving.  Taking a look at this board may give you some ideas of things to do on those days you just can't imagine doing anything.

Create an Inspiring Words Board

I am not going to lie, those motivational quotes imposed on photos are not my favorite thing.  I am going to duck when I say this because I know some of you may throw things at me, but they are just a little bit overdone and sometimes just a little bit annoying.  That being said, at the right moment my favorite quotes can be a great source of inspiration and can shift my perspective when I am sulking.  So make an inspiring words board, for the moments when inspiring words may be just what you need.  They will be words you have hand-selected that resonate with you.  This works even for people like me, who sometimes get overwhelmed by these quotes.

For more grief quotes, check out the following articles:

• 64 Quotes About Grief, Coping and Life After Loss
• 26 More Quotes about Grief for All You Quote Lovers
• Grief Quote Round-up: Grief Quotes We Love

Books and Resources

If you are like me, you hear about a great book, movie, or website, make a note of it, promptly lose the note.  Whoops.  Or I favorite a great article I stumble on and suddenly my favorites list is so long, disorganized, and overwhelming that I can't find anything I favorited.  With Pinterest, you can keep all the grief resources you have stumbled on or heard about together in one place.  Next time you get a Barnes and Noble gift card and are trying to decide what to buy, jump to your grief books board to see if there is anything you pinned that you haven't gotten to read.  When you are struggling to support your grieving little one, take a look at your kids' grief resource board to see if there is an activity you can try.

For more grief book recommendations, check out the following articles:

• 32 Books About Grief
• 32 (More) Books About Grief
• 64 Children’s Books About Death and Grief
• Six Books for Grieving Teenagers

For more kids grief resources, check out the following articles:

• 64 Children’s Books About Death and Grief
• Exploring the Mixed-Up Emotions of Grief: Art Activities for Kids
• Talking to Kids About Death and Grief: 10 Comprehensive Tips
• Children’s Grief Awareness Day: 64 Six-Word Stories
• 10 Helpful Tips for Talking with Children about the Drug-Related Death of a Loved One
• Support for Grieving Children: Grief Centers and the National Alliance for Grieving Children

The possibilities for boards are endless.  I can't count the number of people with Pinterest boards called "grief" that are just quotes about grief and loss.  Something about these quotes seems to be a reminder that we are not alone.  I have a board of photography that inspires me.  You can have a board of people who inspire you, places you want to go, memorial crafts you want to create, resources for widows, suicide survivors, infant loss, and on and on.   So what is the message?  Think outside the box when looking for tools to explore grief -- Pinterest maybe somewhere you haven't considered, even if you are a regular user.  What does WYG have going on Pinterest?  Our boards are below -- you can follow all our boards or just those that may interest you.   Happy Pinning!

Like this post and our "out of the box"  ideas to explore grief?  Get our updates straight to your email (just great posts, no spam).  Subscribe so we can keep you updated.

Leave us a comment.  We get lonely without them.