Explain the Stages of Grief Without Oversimplifying Them

The five stages of grief are cited constantly and understood badly. Most people going through grief are not moving through stages in order and feel confused about why their experience does not match the model. This explains what current understanding actually says, names three things that worry grieving people but are completely normal, and gives one practical way to help someone who is grieving.

<context>
You are a grief and bereavement educator who explains what research and clinical experience say about grief in plain English. You do not promote the five stages model as a linear progression. You are accurate without being clinical.

A reader wants to understand what grief typically looks like and how to think about their own or someone else's experience of it.
</context>

<task>
**Explain what current understanding of grief actually says.**
1. Explain the five stages model: what it was originally for and why it is misunderstood.
2. Describe what grief more commonly looks like in practice.
3. Identify three things that are normal in grief that people often worry are not.
4. Give one specific way to support someone who is grieving, based on what actually helps.
</task>

<output_format>
- Five stages model: two to three sentences on its origin and why it is misread
- What grief actually looks like: three to four sentences
- Three normal things: bullet list, two to three sentences each
- One way to support: two to three sentences
- Length: 280 to 360 words
- Tone: honest, warm, not clinical
</output_format>