When a loved one is about to pass away, the last thing you want to do is contact a funeral home. But you can’t just wait for them to call and ask what you want; if you do, the funeral home will put the body in the ground before you can blink! If you need to plan for this sad occasion, follow these tips and suggestions to help prepare yourself for the most challenging day of your life.
What Funeral Home Preparations Mean
Preparing for an end-of-life service in a funeral home is not just a matter of picking out the right clothes to wear; you also need to prepare physically, emotionally, and mentally. After all, you will support the bereaved family and everyone else in attendance, so you need to be ready emotionally and physically. Never underestimate your presence’s importance, as it could mean the world to those in attendance.
Mental Preparations for a Funeral Home
A loved one’s death is one of the most stressful experiences you will ever face. Simultaneous with your grief, you’ll experience sleepless nights, intense feelings, and awkward social interactions.
Funeral services are even worse—though you’re grieving, you’re expected to perform as though you hadn’t lost your loved one. The stress does not have to debilitate you or slow your recovery. Here are a few tips we believe will help you get through these rough days:
- Remain mindfully aware: When something terrible happens to us, such as the death of a loved one, it is natural to withdraw from our physical, emotional, and social selves. However, while this helps us detach from the pain, it is not always in our best interest. Instead, we should try to be mindful by focusing on the present moment rather than the past or future; simultaneously, we must acknowledge and accept our feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations associated with our loss.
Only then can we apply Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer to accept things that cannot be changed, dare to change something that can (and should) be changed, and discern between the two. Indeed, we cannot change the death of the person we love, but we can change (to some degree) the way we react to the loss—and that takes a certain sense of mindful self-awareness.
- Mentally wire your brain to stay healthy: Grieving does not mean getting a free pass at maintaining poor health habits. Do everything you can to stay physically well to protect yourself from these symptoms: fatigue, body pains, loss or change of appetite, difficulty breathing, digestive issues, feelings of heaviness, and tightness in your throat or chest.
Physical Preparations for a Funeral Home
- Live a healthy lifestyle: Once your mind is prepared for it, apply what you’ve conditioned yourself to do—drink eight glasses of water, eat regularly, move around the funeral home by taking short strolls, focus your mind on nature, and take short naps in between.
- Reach out to your support system: Right now, you may be thinking that your neighbors, friends, and family members are all obstacles getting in your way. To keep yourself stable and get through this crisis, you should use these people to your advantage. Talk to them about your problems. They can be your lifeline. Some of them may even be volunteering to comfort you! Don’t turn them away; instead, allow them to help you.
Prepare for a Loved One’s Death with a Jacksonville Funeral Home
A funeral isn’t just about your deceased loved one. It’s about you as well. Since you’ll be entertaining, chatting, and consoling others who are also grieving, stay mentally and physically prepared. While we didn’t focus much on the technical aspect, these tips will make your planning as respectful as possible.
Contact Evergreen JAX for your bereaved needs if you need help when the time comes. We are a Jacksonville funeral home that offers cost-saving packages and convenient arrangements all in one location. Visit our home page for more information.
