(17) Website Research (pt. 2)

Okay, so in my last blog I defined what grief is and how it can look like, and so in this blog I want to talk about what are the steps people can take in order to heal. :0

When it comes to addressing grief, I feel most people are unsure of what to say or what are the steps you can take to heal. In my own experience I remember that I just wanted to desperately move on with my life and forget about it. Of course, that ended up backfiring and I dealt with a flurry of unresolved emotions a couple months later. 

While I feel that I'm much better at confronting my feelings and letting myself process them, it's still hard for me to talk about what I'm going through with others. Grief is a very touchy subject for everyone, and it can be hard to know how or where to get support or what to say to someone who is grieving. I'm hoping that having information on those topics will help individuals feel more comfortable with addressing grief and help open conversations about it. 

The first rule of thumb for people who are grieving and people who are supporting a loved one is that patience is key. Grieving takes time, and it's crucial to not place any judgements or rush yourself into feeling better as that can cause more problems later on. Many professionals advise to take the time to find activities that can help you relax or that help you release your feelings in a healthy manner. Things such as keeping a journal, meditating or listening to music are all healthy coping mechanisms. If you find yourself delving into unhealthy coping mechanisms (i.e. projecting your anger onto others or abusing substances) you should seek a therapist as soon as possible. Group therapy sessions or seeking for a support group is another good option for someone who does not have access to a therapist. 

If you are someone who is trying to support a grieving person, there are a few do's and don'ts that you should keep in mind. For starters, do not console someone with cliches such as "they're in a better place" as that minimizes the emotions they are going through and can make your support appear to be superficial. Acknowledge their struggle and provide support with statements such as "I'm here to listen if you want to talk". 

Under no circumstances should you ever try to compare a person's experience with your own. It can devalue a person's own pain and in almost all cases mourners are not interested in hearing about another loss. Instead, focus on your friend's grief and their experience. Offer to listen about their feelings and show that you are open to talking about their grief. Giving support through silence is just as helpful; being in their presence without saying anything still shows that you care. 

The stages of grieving don't always look the same from person to person. Sometimes it might take someone a few months to be able to get back on their feet or sometimes it might take years. Some people might have feel more anger rather than sadness and for some it might take a while for them to stop being in denial. The best thing anyone can do to help someone who is grieving is to allow them to grieve. Let them feel sad, let them process their anger. It can be tempting to try and cheer someone up and focus on the positives, but that may only put pressure on a grieving person to 'get better'. Within the media and in American society there is already a lot of stigma over people taking time to grieve, and forcing someone to focus on the positives only adds to that. 

With all of that typed out I think I have enough information to refer to when it's time for me to start putting my website together! :D  I'll keep you guys posted :P

SOURCES:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/ways-to-support-someone-who-is-grieving

https://healgrief.org/how-to-help-someone-grieving/

https://time.com/5118994/advice-for-helping-grieving-friend/

(16) Website Research

Hello everyone! :D

In this blog post I'd like to take the time to organize all of my research that I'm planning to put into my website where I'll showcase my film. As I mentioned in other blogs, I want to have additional information to hopefully give people a chance to learn about what grieving is like. 

For starters, I want to look at basic definitions of grief and how it can manifest in someone's daily life. According to WebMD, "Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something important to you". While we commonly think of grieving as a result of losing a love one, people can grieve over a variety of other instances, such as a break up or a pet passing away. Individuals can also grieve over past periods of their life, like their childhood or their college years. 

Grief can heavily impact a person's productivity and ability to do daily activities such as eating properly or keeping up with healthy hygiene habits. People who are grieving often report feeling as if there is no point in staying healthy or managing all of their tasks. In the case where someone is grieving over a sudden loss their feelings of regret or guilt can make them feel bad to continue with their daily life as if nothing happened. Conversely, some people will try fill up their schedules so they do not have a chance to think or feel pain from their loss. 

A wide range of studies and research show that grief can also manifest itself through physical symptoms. Many people report feeling their hearts literally ache or feel as if their body is very weak. Medical research cautions grieving individuals from exposing themselves to situations where they can contract diseases as the immune response in a grieving person is extremely fragile. In extreme cases, grief can bring up persisting symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts and can trigger other mental disorders such as BPD or Schizophrenia. 

I feel like this is enough information to help give people an understanding of what grief is like. :) I'm thinking that within my website I'll insert a navigation menu and one section will have all of this information on it. I need to figure out whether if I should condense it or expand on it, but for now I think I'll keep it as is. 

I'll keep you guys posted as to what I'll do next! :D

SOURCES:

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/grief-stages/default.htm

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/grief/coping-with-grief-and-loss.htm

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/grief-stages/20190711/how-grief-affects-your-body-and-mind

(15) Group Meetings (pt. 2!)

Hello!

Okay, as you can probably tell by the blog title today today in class we had some group meetings. :0 In the last meeting I had I did not have a lot of questions or much to say since I was in the planning stage, but if you're an avid reader of my posts you'll know that I have been running into issues these past couple of weeks. Luckily, in this meeting I was able to bounce off some ideas and get some help for the issues I've been running into! >:D

One thing that I had some concerns about was editing softwares. In my experience in using Wevideo I have found that editing music can be really tough, and I have found that it lags or there's a lot of odd breaks. Now usually I wouldn't be so nit-picky about it, but for this project the music that I'm including will really help to drive the story, so I want everything to be smooth. My group partner Autumn suggested that I look at an article published by Oberlo.  It has a lot of editing softwares that I can look into besides Adobe so I'll definitely look into it further!

(Here's the link if you want to see it! :D)

I also presented my website idea to the people within my group and they all agreed that I should do it. I was on the fence before because I wasn't sure if it was necessary or if the idea would be well received, but now that I got the opinion of others so the plan is going in motion! 

Now that I have clarity on what I need to get done I figured that it would be wise for me to come up with a more specific schedule on all of the things I need to get done.  While I feel like I'll be able to stay on track, I'm very nervous on whether if other things in my schedule will get in my way. Spring break starts from 3/21-3/27 so that should give me time to get all of my assignments done and work on the project at the same time, hopefully I'm right.

I'll let you guys know what happens, I'll keep you guys posted. :P

(14) Website Ideas

Hello everyone! :D

I mentioned in another blog post that I was thinking about creating my own website as one tool that'll help me distribute my film. In this post I want to divulge all of my thoughts and make note of things I need to complete if I want to use my idea. ;0

The reason I have been considering uploading my film to my own website in addition to other platforms such as Youtube or Vimeo is because I want to have a site that can display links to my blog and include additional information about my film. Since it's an arthouse film I think it would be nice to have some information out there about my creative choices to maybe offer some clarifications to the film. Of course, I don't want to spell it all out as that defeats the purpose of how an arthouse film should be consumed, but I do want to have something for my target audience that is not well-versed in experimental films. 

I also want to have some information on resources and links that can offer individuals who are grieving some support. I believe that a project or art piece that does not try to change something for the better is not worth anyone's time, and that is standard I hold to my own pieces. If I want to go through with this then I'll need to find the time to find useful information from rebuttable sources and come up with a variety of programs or organizations that might offer some assistance. 

I guess I'll look to Wix as a tool to help me start creating a website, but I'm wondering if there's other applications I could use that I might like more. I think that Canva has a feature that can help build websites and I'm already very familiar with how it works so I'll definitely look into it. I can also look at Squarespace or Weebly and see if I prefer one of those options. 

The moment I begin to think about one small aspect of my project a bunch of other questions and factors come into mind; it always surprises me how many things I need to look at before I get an idea off the ground! I'll do my best to do some research on it for these next few days, I'll keep you guys posted. :D