When you first find out about a loss, your world is turned upside down; you enter into some degree of shock. Things seem blurry and you may feel numb. The loss itself may seem surreal. These are all normal reactions to loss, especially unexpected loss. During this time it's important to take care of the everyday routine things in life: eating healthy meals at normal times, attempting to get your normal amount of sleep, etc. This will help your body and your heart begin to process the difficult loss. It's also important to surround yourself with people who love you and will take time to care for you, people who will take things off your plate and take care of them for you. You may need some time alone also and that is OK as well. It's healthy for you to ask directly for what you need - be it to be surrounded by loved ones or to have time alone. However, isolating yourself isn't healthy during this time. Take one hour at a time and one day at a time. If you already have an established relationship with a therapist, this can be an important time to step back into counseling so they can walk you through the initial grieving. This is a very difficult time but doing these important steps at the beginning of a difficult loss will put you on a path of healthy grieving.