Dealing with Grief and Fears

The Christmas displays go up, holiday music fills the air. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Except at your house. Because when you’re grieving, the holidays can hurt. The first year I was widowed, no one got anything from me…

Whether it comes unexpectedly or after a long illness, losing a spouse is traumatic at best. At worst it can be debilitating. I know because, at age 35, I became a widow myself. While many people want to help, it can be difficult to know how…

As a life coach for widows, I often talk with people who are using gratitude against themselves. Self-inflicted, forced gratitude is how many people attempt to kick themselves into a better emotional state. It isn’t effective…

If you’ve lived to reach your 60s, most likely you’re a resilient person who has been around the block a few times. Take a minute to think back to a time in your life when you faced a tragic or a traumatic experience. How did you manage to survive and move forward?

There are two kinds of losses in this life: clear loss, such as the death of a loved one where there is a body, and ambiguous loss, where the person is there – but not there. Examples of ambiguous loss can be divorce, mental illness, dementia, addiction…

There is no doubt that the Covid virus has tested humanity in many ways. It seems to be a huge wake-up call that, apparently, we all needed. It essentially forced us all to slow and then hunker down with only our nearest and dearest…

I’ve written before about my recurring dreams. From the proverbial math test that you haven’t studied for – to the play you’re in where you don’t know your lines – I regularly experience some of the most common dreams in adulthood…

Kitty, age 64, carried a shameful secret since retiring early – she had become an overeater. She had worked in Los Angeles as newspaper editor most of her adult life. Her average work weeks were 60-plus hours. She had a love-hate relationship…

I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday of the entire year. I try to live a life filled with gratitude, and it’s special to have a day set aside for giving thanks – even though I practice it every day. This year, my estranged daughter will once again…

Just as surely as the earth turns, the times change. The first blush of love turns into the apathy and pain of divorce. The miracle of birth turns into the challenge of adult children struggling in life. The career highs turn into the search for purpose…