Grief assuredly has an autonomic component.

In indigenous and ancestral cultures, grieving was a community affair. In our modern individualistic culture, where people experience greater isolation, and often grieve alone, it is more difficult to metabolize these emotions and energies.

For some this leads to anxiety, for others shutdown and overwhelm and depression. In either case, grief tends to shift our autonomic baseline into defense.

It is important to our wellbeing to have rituals that allow us to metabolize our grief, in community.