When Life Takes More Than You Have to Give – Grief, Survival, and Finding Your Way Back

What You’ll Learn

• What ambiguous loss and anticipatory grief can look like
• How grief and prolonged stress can affect your energy, focus, and capacity
• Why having less to give during a difficult season doesn’t diminish your worth
• How a process from awareness and permission to acceptance and choice can help you navigate grief
• Gentle ways to find support, make space for rest, and reconnect with what brings you joy
• How self-forgiveness can help you release guilt about what you couldn’t do
• Why you don’t have to wait for grief to disappear before giving yourself permission to live

Grief doesn’t always have a clear beginning or end. Sometimes it comes with a gradual change in a relationship, a shift in our health, or the loss of a future we once imagined. In this episode, I share what I’ve learned about grief, caregiving, and finding my way back to myself as my husband lives with dementia, from changes in our marriage and the exhaustion of survival mode to giving myself permission to imagine a future that includes my own needs and desires. I also revisit my process for moving toward acceptance and share gentle practices for recognizing what you’re carrying, finding support, and letting go of the guilt that can come with having less capacity.