Your Body Is on High Alert

Grief doesn't just affect your emotions — it triggers a powerful physical response.

When we experience loss, our brain interprets it as danger. It activates the same emergency system that would fire if we were being chased by a predator: the fight or flight response. Our brain floods with cortisol, the stress hormone. Our heart rate rises. Blood pumps to our muscles. Every system goes on high alert.

The problem is, we're not designed to stay in this state for long. But with grief, that's exactly what happens. You may recognise this: constantly flustered and jumpy, unable to sleep, unable to unwind. Your body keeps you on edge — waiting for a tiger that isn't there.

This knowledge tends to bring some relief. You haven't become an anxious person overnight. This is your body's normal reaction to an abnormal situation.

Your Brain Is Working Overtime

There's another reason you're so exhausted, and it's happening beneath your awareness.

Your brain is a learning machine. For years, it built an internal map of the world that included your loved one — their voice, their habits, the expectation that they'd be there. Now, it has to update that entire map. Every memory. Every assumption. Every plan that included them.

This isn't a conscious process. It happens in the background, constantly, whether you're actively thinking about them or not. And it consumes an enormous amount of mental energy — leaving you with only scraps for everything else.

This is why you can't concentrate. Why you forget simple things. Why you stand in the supermarket unable to remember what you came for. It's not that you're losing your mind. It's that your mind is doing the hardest work it's ever done — and there's little left over for the basics.

Grief Is Hard Work

We often think of grief as something that happens to us — something we passively endure until it passes. But the reality is that adapting to loss is active, effortful work.

You are being asked to face a reality you didn't choose. To accept something your heart desperately wants to reject. To rebuild your sense of the world, your identity, your future — all while carrying the weight of profound pain.

As Diane Dettmann wrote:

I realised, it is not the time that heals, but what we do within that time that creates positive change.

This work takes energy. Real, physical energy. And when people tell you to "just rest," they don't always understand that even rest doesn't fully restore you — because the work continues even while you sleep.

The Space Between Old and New

Part of what makes grief so exhausting is the uncertainty.

You are no longer who you were before the loss. But you haven't yet become who you will be. You're suspended in between — in what some call the fertile void. It's a place of not-knowing, of groundlessness, of having lost your footing without yet finding solid ground again.

This in-between state is profoundly tiring. Your mind craves certainty, and right now, there is none. You don't know what your life will look like. You don't know how long this will last. You don't know who you're becoming.

This uncertainty alone can drain you — even on days when nothing particularly difficult happens.

Managing Your Energy Through Oscillation

You cannot grieve at full intensity all the time. Your system would collapse. Healthy adaptation involves moving back and forth — between feeling the pain and taking deliberate breaks.

This means giving yourself permission to step away. To watch something mindless. To go for a walk. To have a conversation that isn't about grief. These aren't distractions or avoidance — they're essential recovery time that allows you to return to the hard work when you're ready.

Think of it like interval training: periods of intensity followed by periods of rest. Both are necessary. Both are part of healing.

What Can Actually Help

Understanding why you're exhausted is the first step. Here are some things that can support your depleted system:

• Prioritise sleep. Your brain is doing repair work while you rest. Go to bed at a regular time. Limit screens before sleep. Accept that you may need more sleep than usual right now.

• Move your body. Even a short walk helps metabolise the stress hormones flooding your system. You don't need to exercise intensely — just move.

• Keep your expectations small. Your mental to-do list needs to shrink. What feels manageable on a normal day may be too much right now. Focus on one or two things.

• Build in comfort. Small acts of self-care aren't indulgent — they're survival. A warm bath, a cup of tea, soft music. These send signals of safety to your overwhelmed nervous system.

• Use calming breathing. By breathing slowly and deeply, you send a message to your brain that you're not in danger. This can help switch off the fight or flight response, even temporarily.

If You Would Like More Support

The Grief Works Programme offers practical tools for managing the physical toll of grief.

Session 5: Soothing Fear explains how grief activates your fight or flight response and includes a calming breathing exercise you can use anytime to help your body feel safe again.

Session 20: A Structure of Good Habits helps you build a routine that conserves your limited energy — so you're not constantly deciding how to spend each moment, and you can feel a sense of stability and control.

Session 19: Soothing and Relaxing offers additional practices to help you rest and restore.

You're not lazy. You're not weak. You're doing the hardest work of your life — and it makes sense that you're tired. Be gentle with yourself.