In the United States, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) determines the official dates for business cycles.According to the NBER, there have been 11 business cycles from 1945 to 2009, with the average length of a cycle lasting about 69 months, or a little less than six years.These combined stages generally take an average of three years, though for some people the period is shorter, while for others, it is longer.The stages may occur in a specific order, though they may also blend and overlap. The person who wants the divorce is called the “initiator” spouse, while the person who is not requesting the divorce (and usually does not want the divorce) is called the “non-initiator” spouse.Until recently, very little sound research existed about how we live on after a loved one has died.

The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP.

A widow might feel anxious and blue one day, only to feel lighthearted and cheerful the next.

In other words, we don’t grieve in stages at all, but oscillate rapidly.

Over time, those swings diminish in both frequency and intensity until we reach a level of emotional adjustment. One of the most important new findings has shown that for most of us, grief is a severe — but self-limiting — condition, not a permanent state.

In one study of older men and women who had lost spouses, George A.