• Know that you are knowledgeable and competent. Trust your skills.
  • Have reasonable expectations of yourself, personally as well as in your grief process.
  • Understand the dynamics of grief. Accept your own losses; resolve your own grief.
  • Think about what your spiritual purpose is and feed your soul.
  • Understand where you are most vulnerable, identify your own needs, and keep checking to see if you are meeting those needs.
  • Live “life” as you must—not as others would have you do. You are not here to meet the expectations of others.
  • Know how to ask for help when you need it. You have that right. Have capable friends.
  • Locate qualified, competent referral sources that you can trust: therapists, ministers, psychiatrists, physicians, and community resources.
  • Give yourself permission to fail.
  • Give yourself permission to delight in your accomplishments.
  • Understand stress: its causes, prevention, and management.
  • Accept the fact that everyone will die. You must think about it, talk about it, and let it go. Only when you accept death will you begin to truly appreciate life and the people in it.