Here’s her personal advice for persevering.
Sandberg said the pandemic is causing mass grief but it is also presenting an opportunity for collective resilience and courage.
By Marguerite Ward for Business Insider
photo: Since losing her husband in 2015, Sheryl Sandberg has become an advocate for talking about loss and for bereavement leave. Getty
For the past 11 months, I’ve been grieving the death of my younger brother, Matthew Ward, who died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 21. I’ve been living what Facebook COO and author Sheryl Sandberg calls “Option B.”
It’s the state where, after experiencing something earth-shattering, a person tries to find the next best option in life. It’s where you learn to climb mountains, one step at a time.
Sandberg started living “Option B” in 2015 after her husband, the SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg, died at age 47 that same year. Two years later, she coauthored a book with the same name along with the Wharton psychologist Adam Grant. Since then, she’s become a public advocate for addressing grief, building personal strength, and for bereavement leave.
On Thursday, I interviewed the Facebook COO on a Zoom call for a story on grief.
I decided to go with my gut and lead with why I was passionate about covering the topic — because of my own journey. When I told her what happened to my brother, she stopped me mid-sentence.
“So sorry. Like, so sorry,” she said, putting up her hands. “‘Cause the death, it’s an avoidable — that — like so sorry.”
There was a pause. She knew there were no other words. And I knew too.
After a moment, I began the interview, asking her about what the world is experiencing right now. We began the conversation with how not only we were personally grieving but the world is grieving because of the coronavirus pandemic.
…Here are five important things to remember if you’re experiencing anxiety or grief right now, according to Sandberg.