Another kind of death?

When we hear the word death, the first thing that comes to mind is the loss of life.The loss of someone we love as the end of life. And rightly so — nothing compares to that kind of loss.

But I think, while we are alive, we experience other kinds of death too. The death of a relationship we gave our all to. The death of a dream that once kept us awake at night. The quiet death of hope that, at one point, held everything together. Isn't it so?

Here is a version of me that has died!

I am not comparing these to the loss of a life. But I do think they are hard. In their own way.

Because something real ends here too. And probably something within us dies too!!

These deaths don't have rituals!

When a dream ends, it’s not just the outcome that disappears. It’s the version of life you had imagined. When a relationship ends, it’s not just about the person. It’s the space they occupied in your everyday.

So basically, what dies is not just the dream or love—it’s also who you were when you believed in it. There is a version of you that existed in that hope, that love, that possibility.

And when it ends, that version of you changes too. Its only logical!

From the outside, life continues as usual. But internally, something has shifted.

You may look the same, go about your day, show up where you need to —but you know something is not the same anymore. And that’s what makes it harder. Because you’re expected to move on from something no one really acknowledges as a loss.

These are not losses that people gather around for. There are no rituals, no condolences, no defined way to process them. This kind of grief is invisible.

This loss also doesn’t follow a pattern. Some days, you don’t feel it at all. And then suddenly, it all comes back at once. A memory. A thought. A moment.

We often try to move past these things quickly. Tell ourselves to be practical. Infact others tell us to to be strong, that it's going to be fine and yes, eventually I think everything is fine (whatever fone means!). You are told to focus on what’s next.

But I am telling you, don't rush this!

This too deserves its own space. It’s okay to feel low. It’s okay to feel sad. It’s okay to break down. It’s okay to feel like things won’t be the same —because sometimes, they won’t be.

And it matters!!

Those dreams, that love, that hope —at some point, they were real. They shaped you.They carried you through certain phases of your life. And maybe that’s enough reason to acknowledge their end properly.

I believe that not all death is visible. But that doesn’t make it any less real.

And not all grief looks the same. But it still deserves to be felt. And there is nothing wrong with you for feeling this way.

This is how life moves. This is how impermanence works. Things change. People change. What we needed changes, what we want changes too. And in that process, we are asked to become new versions of ourselves.

It's new, it's tough, uncomfortable. It can feel heavy. But I guess such is life!

The thing with this kind of death, is that it makes place for something new, it gives you space to grow, to become.

Remember, even in endings, life doesn’t stop. It shifts. And so do we.