Hurting and mourning loved one:Prescription for heartache
At some point in life, each one of us has or will experience grief. It is inevitable. So I lost my sister to cancer and this was a terrible blow. My heart didn’t only break, the pain was beyond description.
I thank God for good friends, one of them recommended a chapter in “The power of positive thinking” by Vincent Norman Peale. The 16th chapter of this book, entitled ” Prescription for heartache” caught my eyes, and after reading and re-reading, I thought I should share the lessons that have helped me in my grief.
“There is indeed a prescription for heartache. One element in the prescription is physical activity. The sufferer must avoid the temptation to sit and brood. A sensible program which substitutes physical activity for such fruitless brooding reduces the strain on the area of the mind where we reflect, philosophize and suffer mental pain. Muscular activity utilizes another part of the brain and therefore shifts the strain and gives relief.
An old country lawyer who had  a sound philosophy and much wisdom told a sorrowing woman that the best medicine for a broken heart is to “take a scrubbing-brush and get down on your knees and go to work.” The best medicine for a man, he declared is “to get an ax and chop wood until your are physically exhausted.” While this is not guaranteed to be a complete cure for heartache, yet it does tend to mitigate such suffering.
Whatever the character of your heartache;
- Â resolve to escape from any defeatist situation which may have been created around yourself and return to the normal course of your life.
- loose yourself in some worthwhile project. Get busy walking, swimming, ridding, playing- get the blood to coursing through your system.
- Fill yourself with creative activity
- Give way to grief. It is natural to cry when pain or sorrow comes.It is a relief mechanism provided in the body by the Almighty God and should be used.
- Be as normal and natural as possible. Normal sorrow is  a  natural process and is evidenced by the ability of the individual to return to his usual pursuits and responsibilities and continue therein as formerly.
Inevitably, the basic prescription for heartache is to turn to God in an attitude of faith and empty the mind and the heart to Him. Perseverance in the form of spiritual self- emptying will finally bring healing to the broken heart…. It is not advisable to attempt to  carry the burden of sorrow and mental pain without Divine help, for its weight is more than the personality can bear.
The simplest and most effective of all prescriptions for heartache then is to practice the presence of God. This will soothe the ache in your heart and ultimately heal the wound. Another  profoundly curative element in the prescription for heartache is to gain a sound and satisfying philosophy of life and death and deathlessness.”
Excerpt from “The Power of positive thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale
By Liz Ekakoro:Diaspora Messenger contributor/Kenyan in Ukrain
Hurting and mourning loved one: Prescription for heartache
