In this week’s episode, we speak about Thanksgiving.
Some other countries also celebrate this glorious day where we have a lovely feast of food and appreciate our family and friends.
But when we’ve experienced a loved one’s death, it can be a difficult holiday when someone very special is missing.
Listen in to Episode 51 to learn ways to enjoy your Thanksgiving, focusing on what we have versus what we are longing for.
And remember to pick up my ebook Holiday Grief: How To Cope With Stress, Anxiety and Depression After a Loved One’s Death right here on my site on the left hand margin.
In this week’s episode, we discuss how to prepare yourself as we encounter the year-end holidays.
No matter which ones you celebrate, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years, or many others after a loved one has died, they just don’t feel the same.
If it’s the first holiday season since you have been bereaved, or it’s a few more, trying to feel happy and enjoying the seasons as you did in the past, can be an especially difficult task.
The main thing you need to know is that you don’t have to do all you’ve done in the past.
You can decide on a different path. You can curtail your events and celebrations this year and there is nothing wrong with that.
Your emotional state is different now and you must be sensitive to that and treat yourself with more care.
So listen in to Episode 50 and please be kind to yourself as we move into this season.
And remember to pick up my ebook Holiday Grief: How To Cope With Stress, Anxiety and Depression After a Loved One’s Death right here on my site on the left hand margin.
In Episode 22, I wanted to speak about the experience of having had a loved one die of the coronavirus and how that affects us.
Dianne M. Daniels, who is taking the same online course as I am, was gracious to provide her outlook after the death of her beloved cousin, Alexis.
A bright, beautiful and accomplished women, Alexis was also an entrepreneur who is survived by her husband, Arthur, two children, David and Olivia, as well as her mother DeeDee, and countless other family members who will miss her terribly. Alexis’ battle against the virus took her life on April 10th.
Dianne speaks of how the weeks leading up to Alexis’ death were filled with anxiety yet hopefulness. Alexis had had allergies and breathing difficulties including asthma which meant she was at greater risk to contract the virus.
Dianne M. DanielsAlexis Wyatt Williams
Listen in to Episode 22 to hear more about Dianne’s experience leading up to the death of her cousin, Alexis.
Also in this episode, I discuss how to cope with the inability to be with those who were in nursing facilities and hospitals and died without family near.
There are so many complicated emotions which arise from a coronavirus death.
Before this virus struck us and quarantined our families, we would simply go to their home, the nursing home, the hospital or other facility and be with them as they passed away.
But not being able to do that just now has added guilt, anger, a feeling of impotence and other emotions which we would be smart to deal with now, right here, so these feeling don’t linger and spiral out of control.
Listen in to Episode 22, share with those who might be in need of comfort and knowledge and rate and review wherever you hear my podcast.
This week we look at how our teenagers are dealing with being quarantined at home and what they think about this pandemic.
I have the good fortune to know Olivia Moody, who is my neighbor and an exceptional young lady. Her heart is always in the right place, doing wonderful things to help lift the spirits of all those she meets.
I wanted to learn what Olivia was feeling and thinking about this unprecedented time in our lives and she graciously agreed to share her perspective.
In Episode 21, I tell you what she has shared about her life now and how different is it since the lockdown began. You are in for a real treat!
On the podcast, I promised to share the beautiful note she wrote and secretly left for all her neighbors at their doorstep.
Below is her note:
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Zig Ziglar
Thank you Olivia for your thoughtful and caring gift to all of us!
Listen in to Episode 21, share with those who might be in need of comfort and knowledge and rate and review wherever you hear my podcast.
Since there is so much going on in our world and inside our homes each day, it isn’t uncommon to sidestep what our young ones are feeling.
Just like adults, they deal with the grief associated with no seeing their friends and relatives on a regular basis.
They don’t know what all this means. They haven’t seen you in this state before. Trying to juggle all the household chores of cleaning, cooking, taking care of them, homeschooling or at least tutoring them through their now online classes and somehow doing all your work online yourself.
And if you are an essential worker, who is caring for them each day.
All the while, they are just as confused and left wondering what all this means.
They watch the television and since they aren’t really sure what is happening or when this will end, they just observe.
But they don’t like that the questions floating through their minds aren’t really answered.
And they don’t know what to ask you or other adults mostly because they see you don’t really have any answers anyway.
Episode 20 we explore language you can use to help explain to our young ones what we know at this time and how they can help the family move through this crisis.