Do I need to understand why?

Despite the widespread belief that we need to understand why we feel a certain way before we can deal with it, one does not need to know anything more than what is being felt.

And this knowing what we are feeling does not mean that we need to properly label it. Some people might call a particular feeling "sorrow", others will call it "sadness", and others will term it  "grief".

The words used to label it do not matter.

Feeling it fully and releasing the feeling are what are important and what will speed that feeling on its way. Everything else (analysing, denying, studying, judging, etc.) are just mental exercises which keep the feeling in place.

In other words, you don't need to know why you feel the way you do to be free of that feeling.