You’re going through a divorce or lost your partner and are now struggling to make sense of the past you knew with the past that now seems changed. You felt important in your job or as a parent, but now you’re retired, your children are independent, and you’ve lost that sense of purpose. You were physically able to do so much, but now, through injury, illness, or age, feel your limitations and find your life getting smaller.

Like a book, our lives move in chapters that we, as the authors, are writing in the present. One chapter closes—our relationship ends, our children leave, we retire from a long-term job—and we need to start and create a new one.

The challenge is often two-fold. The first part is the change in your everyday life; now that you’re not doing what you used to, how do you envision a good everyday life? Closely tied, and more importantly, is creating a new sense of purpose. The first is about reorienting your everyday living; the other is finding meaning. Here are eight tips to help you navigate this difficult transition:

1. Realize you’re grieving.

With any loss, no matter how large or small, comes grief—the obsessing, the guilt and anger,........

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