Profile Tips help you put your strengths profile to work
Caroline looked up as her dad shuffled into the room.
“Here, Dad, help us with these ornaments,” she said as her two school-aged children scampered around the Christmas tree and her husband tinkered with the lights. “We’re trying to finish decorating tonight.”
Her dad took the box, looked down, and sighed.
This is rough, thought Caroline. I miss Mom, too.
Here’s a Tip
Use your strengths to help others navigate grief during the holidays.
Grief intensifies during the holiday season, particularly in the wake of a fresh loss.
Caroline’s dad, a retired executive, had always led an industrious life. Passionate and energetic, he was used to making far-reaching choices and adjustments quickly to accommodate his business interests. But in the year since her mother’s death, Caroline had watched usually-animated, visionary father struggle with simple decisions: what to buy at the grocery store, when to play golf with his buddies, what to wear to church.
Caroline, on the other hand, was by nature deliberate and habitual. Her motto since her mother’s passing was “One step at a time.” When it came to navigating change, Caroline knew, she resembled her mom.
It was a valuable piece of information – and one that Caroline intentionally put to use as she and her dad grieved together.
That’s why at this moment, she handed her 6-year-old son an ornament and nudged him while looking at her father.
“Grandpa, can you put this one near the top?” the little boy asked. “I can’t reach.”
Caroline’s dad looked at his grandson, then his daughter, and then smiled. “Yes,” he said, taking the ornament. “I can do that. And maybe one or two more, too.”
During a difficult season when her father needed specific strengths he didn’t have, Caroline used her systematic, one-step-at-a-time approach to help him navigate change.
How do your strengths stand in the gap when loved ones are grieving during the holidays? Use them.
More Tips to Use Your Strengths During the Holidays
Profile Tip: Use Your Strengths to Relieve Holiday Stress
Two Ways to Manage Change At Christmas
Profile TIp: Look for Signals to Stay in Balance During the Holidays