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Comment and Mind

Why taking our grief out into nature can help us heal

When we lose a loved one, it has a profound effect on our bodies. Taking our grief outside offers us better healing in the long term than shutting it away, says Ruth Allen

By Ruth Allen

10 July 2024

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Elaine Knox

If you haven’t experienced a significant loss in your life, then you are one of the lucky ones. If you have – be it a spouse, child or close friend – then you probably already know how it can feel like losing your mind. Which, in some ways, you are.

In her extensive grief research, Mary-Frances O’Connor explains that when we experience a profound loss, our brains have to begin a lengthy process of rewiring all of the pathways and predictions they made based on a loved one’s presence, gradually switching over to an understanding of their absence. It can take…

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