Tag Archives: holiday

Holidays, The Mary Mac Show, Uncategorized

The Mary Mac Show | Preparing for the Holidays II

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In this week’s episode, we speak about Christmas, Hanukkah and other year-end holidays and how we can best navigate through them.

If this is the first year without your special loved one, there are many decisions that need to be made to help yourself get through them with the least amount of stress and anxiety.

So listen in to Episode 211 and please be kind to yourself as we move into this season.

Or you can also listen into the audio only through youtube:

And remember to pick up my ebook Holiday Grief: How To Cope With Stress, Anxiety and Depression After a Loved One’s Death through Amazon Kindle.

Additional Notes:
Visit my Crisis Resources page if you need someone to speak with. There is no harm in picking up the phone if you feel overwhelmed and need a friend. They are there to listen.

Learn EFT, the Emotional Freedom Technique with Brad Yates.

Please watch Marisa Peer’s “I Am Enough” video which will help you feel better.

Meditation Videos to help you rest. Choose which resonate with you.

Also, I hope you will help support The Mary Mac Show by contributing a gift of any size that is comfortable for you so we can continue this important work. It would be much appreciated.

Please share our episodes with anyone you know who might benefit from this knowledge. Also subscribe to my podcast on whichever podcast platform you listened in.

xoxo

Holidays, The Mary Mac Show

The Mary Mac Show | Preparing for the Holidays I

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The Mary Mac Show Podcast

In this week’s episode, we discuss how to prepare yourself as we encounter the year-end holidays.

No matter which ones you celebrate, 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 doing 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 210 and please be kind to yourself as we move into this season.

Or you can also listen into the audio only through youtube:

And remember to pick up my ebook Holiday Grief: How To Cope With Stress, Anxiety and Depression After a Loved One’s Death through Amazon Kindle.

Additional Notes:

Learn EFT, the Emotional Freedom Technique with Brad Yates.

Meditation Videos to help you rest. Choose which resonate with you.

Also, I hope you will help support The Mary Mac Show by contributing a gift of any size that is comfortable for you so we can continue this important work. It would be much appreciated.

Please share our episodes with anyone you know who might benefit from this knowledge. Also subscribe to my podcast on whichever podcast platform you listened in.

xoxo

Holidays, Military

Memorial Day 2014

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276240_100000410189176_563033050_nEach year when this day rolls around, I am reminded of all the sacrifice a family makes when their loved one goes away to protect the freedoms we Americans enjoy each day.

And while I’m so amazed at what it takes to be in the military and fight overseas with the constant threat of being killed, if they’re in a combat situation, I feel it’s also important to recognize the sacrifices a family makes throughout the entire tour.

A spouse who is left to raise a young family by themselves perhaps on a military base. The inadequate stipend they are given to raise that family. The increased level of responsibility they must endure.

And if their beloved is killed, they are left to raise that family alone.

Today I salute not only the veterans and remember all those who were killed to secure our freedoms, but for all the family members who are or have grieved a military family member’s death and the difficult road to recovery on an emotional as well as financial level.

I salute you!

Death of a Spouse, Holidays

Holiday Grief: My Story by Michelle Enis Vasquez, San Antonio, TX

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Brian and MichelleI have been widowed twice.

I put up my Christmas tree two weeks ago. On Thanksgiving, my beloved Brian will have been gone eight weeks. He died October 3, 2013.

I decided that the Christmas tree would be a memorial to him, and I got a whole bunch of purple ornaments (our favorite color) and some British ornaments, and other ornaments that reminded me of our time together.

My beloved husband, Al, died in 2007. I have ornaments from years past to honor his memory, and I added a few more this year. I also found two angels that did not look like women (hard to find) and put them close together, symbolizing my two guardian angels, Al and Brian, who are looking after me.

I turn on those lights when I wake up and keep them on until I go to bed. I need a bit of cheer at this very difficult time.

Michelle Enis Vasquez lives in San Antonio, Texas. This picture was taken on a cruise to Alaska they enjoyed just a month before his death in October, 2013. Michelle also recently baked a cake to honor her two angels.

Death of a Parent, Grieving Children, Holidays

Holiday Grief: My Story by Jenny Montalbano, Astoria, NY

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Jenny and Aunt EllieChristmas is my Mom’s favorite holiday.

She would be at Hallmark the day after Christmas for the half-priced ornaments to add to our already full Christmas Tree for the next year.

She would spend hours putting out her Christmas Village house and arranging cotton wads to look like snow.

She would bake her Mother’s Italian Christmas cookies and fill the house with the smells of holiday comfort and love while she listened to her favorite Christmas music, with Frank Sinatra in high rotation.

Each year, when “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” would play, Mom would re-tell me how it reminded her of the Christmases in the early 1950’s as she and my grandparents would wait for word from their son who was away in the military.

My mother, Ellie, passed in October of 2011. As my first Christmas without her was creeping up, I couldn’t believe how much I was dreading a holiday that I used to love so much.

Every Christmas decoration, commercial and holiday scent made me burst into tears. I wanted to hide from it all.

One night when I was home alone, I played all Mom’s favorite Christmas songs and wept as each song flooded my brain with memories of my incredible Mom.

“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” brought me to my knees and I allowed myself to sob as long and as loud as I needed to. After that, I began to cry a bit less and smile a bit more.

I’ll never stop missing my Mom, especially at Christmas time but allowing myself to be happy and enjoy the holidays feels as though Mom still is enjoying them, too.

Jenny Montalbano is from Astoria, Queens, New York and enjoys her family and friends. Her mother, Eleanor, was a lifelong friend of my Godmother and thus I had the pleasure of enjoying her company at family events. She was an amazing woman. To read the comments on my Facebook invitation, click here.