Will I love The Grieving Brain?

Because I’ve spent so many years grieving one loss or another, I value the ability to understand what’s happening in our brains when it feels as though our emotions have completely taken over, particularly when we’re new to grief.

The Grieving Brain provides a deeper dive into the science of grief than Can Anyone Tell Me? does, and for that reason it’s been helpful for me to read now, when my loss is no longer new and I’m more able to digest the informational passages.

I loved how O’Connor skillfully explains the neuroscience of grief, then helps us understand how… show more.

I am a science person. I love the magic of discovering why things work the way they do. In this book, a neuroscientist and psychologist explain the brain science behind grief.

People experiencing grief can have a lot of physical symptoms that might be confusing. This book explains and validates why some of those physical symptoms are happening. 

I love books that see ways to bridge domains of experience and understanding normally kept apart, and this book does that brilliantly. I was so touched by the author’s personal story of grief and its relationship to her experience of art in the rural community in which she was raised.

But I also learned immensely about how this talented neuropsychologist channeled that experience into studies that helped me understand the neurological components of grief, including how to diminish their amplitude through thoughtful practice.

For me, it provided a new conceptual framework for “learning to die,” a new sense of the… show more.

I have spent the last 24 years living with grief personally over my son Harry and professionally investigating the grief of others, and no other book has explained to me so well how we survive grief and why it takes so long to adapt to it.

This book caused so many light bulb moments! My biggest takeaway is that it takes a lifetime for our brains to map the people in our lives and many weeks, months, and years to remap when someone dies or leaves us.

To have that scientifically proven is a gift for anyone living with grief;… show more.