How do we make space for grief amidst the holiday season expectations of love and joy? Andrea and Rebecca explore this topic with Brianna Rose (creator of the Hack Your Nervous System deck) who shares insights on the nervous system, emotional regulation, and the importance of honoring what we're experiencing. The discussion includes practical tools and exercises for both adults and children to learn to be with our grief and explore practices that foster emotional resilience.

Takeaways

• Grief can coexist with joy during the holidays.
• It's important to honor and feel our emotions, including sadness.
• The nervous system plays a crucial role in how we process grief.
• Mind-body connection is essential for emotional regulation.
• There are tools to help facilitate that connection.
• Children can learn to regulate their emotions through co-regulation with adults.
• Nature can be a powerful source of healing and connection.
• Meeting your nervous system with compassion is key to healing.
• Grief work is a personal journey that can also involve community support.
• Creating a safe space for emotions allows for deeper healing.

Keywords

grief, healing, nervous system, emotional regulation, holidays, connection, Brianna Rose, mindfulness, self-care, mental health

Order Brianna's Nervous System Decks:

https://hackyournervoussystem.org/collections/all

Find Brianna on Instagram:

@ hackyournervoussystem 

For our two-year anniversary, Andrea chose this episode to re-release. This conversation on how trauma, resilience, and healing shape us resonates with Andrea's practices during Día de Muertos. We hope your heart finds some note of sweetness for your grief in this rebroadcast.

Original show notes:

In this episode, Andrea and Rebecca welcome Dr. Ramona Beltrán to talk about ancestral grief and the ways that we carry the trauma - and the love and strength - of those who came before us. Dr. Beltrán reminds us to invite complexity, be open to shifting in the ways we see ourselves and others, and to continue to evolve in our understanding of self, our ancestors, and one another.

For our two-year anniversary, we are re-releasing episodes that speak to our grief. Today's re-release is chosen by Rebecca. It's our conversation with poet, Andrea Gibson. 

Original episode description:

In this episode Andrea and Rebecca welcome poet and spoken word artist, Andrea Gibson to talk about love, mortality, embracing the chaos and when fear turned into grief, which became awe. Andrea shares their "stage 4 wisdom" and the three wind through hyperbaric chambers and the cosmos with laughter, insights, and of course, poetry. 

You can find Andrea Gibson's work at 
www.andreagibson.org
on Instagram @andreagibson
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndreaGibsonPoetry/

More About Andrea:

Andrea Gibson is one of the most celebrated and influential spoken word artists of our time. Best known for their live performances, Gibson has changed the landscape of what it means to attend a “poetry show.” Gibson’s poems center around LGBTQ issues, spirituality, feminism, mental health and the dismantling of oppressive social systems. Andrea is the author of seven books, most recently “You Better Be Lightning.”

In this deeply moving episode, Andrea and Rebecca speak with Lindsay Stanton whose husband passed away but whose love story continues beyond the physical world. Before his death, the two shared a powerful agreement: to stay connected, no matter what.

What followed was nothing short of extraordinary. From unmistakable signs to quiet moments of guidance, Lindsay shares how her husband remains an active part of her life.

We explore:

• The spiritual pact they made before his passing
• The ways he communicates with her from the other side
• How she distinguishes signs from coincidence
• The ongoing relationship that transcends death
• What it's taught her about grief, trust, and love

Find Lindsay

On Instagram @thehealinggriefguide

On Facebook @lindsay.w.stanton

And her book: The Enduring and Everlasting https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2J8PJ4S

In this episode of All the Grief, we talk with author Margie Zable Fisher about The Cabernet Club, a novel her mother (Rona S. Zable) started, and one Margie made a promise to complete after her death. Guided by her mother's spirit, Margie shares the story of how finishing the book became a way to honor her mother’s voice, navigate grief, and bring this shared creative project into the world. 

Book available wherever you get your books. 

Find Margie

https://margiezfisher.com

On Instagram @margiezablefisher

Rebecca and Andrea welcome therapist and poet, Moudi Sbeity to the podcast. Moudi shares how he lived outside of his peers - and even his family as a boy growing up with a severe stutter, in a country locked in external and internal wars, and his eventual move to the United States. Though always searching for stability and a place to call home, it is through poetry that he has written his story in his own voice - and has found home within himself. 

A touching, poetic, and memorable episode.

Find Moudi

On Instagram @moudi.sbeity

Subscribe to Moudi's Substack www.moudisbeity.substack.com

In this episode Rebecca and Andrea talk with licensed clinical social worker, Kristy Howlett. Kristy shares the wisdom gained after over two decades of working with children as a play therapist.

She offers us - any of us with kids in our lives, not only caregivers  - encouragement on how to talk about grief with children and how we can best meet them where they are.

Find out more about Kristy:

https://www.kristyhowlettlcsw.com/

Resources:

Sesame Street clip: Sesame Street - "Goodbye, Mr. Hooper" Excerpts

Books: 

The 10th Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst

The Hare Shaped Hole by John Dougherty and Thomas Doeherty

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

Rebecca and Andrea invite the mystic and poet, Wendy Havlir to All the Grief to talk about the complexities of life's choices and the courage, excitement, and grief that come with following your path. For the past seven years Wendy has been walking with grief as she left a career, a marriage, and the place she called home - but ultimately found herself.

Find Wendy

On Instagram @theschoolofwildandholy

On Facebook www.facebook.com/wendyhavlircherry/

Online: www.shegathersbeauty.com

Her Book can be purchased on Amazon: https://a.co/d/i79ATDh

Or Woman Craft Publishing: https://womancraftpublishing.com/product/the-mistress-of-longing/

Rebecca and Andrea watched Good Grief, written, produced, directed by, and starring the incredible Dan Levy. It’s a film about an artist grieving the loss of his famous writer husband. As his grief unfolds he takes his two best friends on a trip to Paris, where much is revealed about loss, relationships, and their friendships. 

Watch now on Netflix. 

Rebecca and Andrea chat with Diandra Ford-Wing about her first book, Red Bird, a memoir detailing the tragic losses of her beloved aunt and her mother in less than a year and a half. The stunning and mysterious death of her aunt, and the heartbreak it created for her mother, caused Diandra to set her grief aside as she worked to lay her aunt to rest on the other side of the world. Her mother's subsequent loss sent Diandra searching for answers and signs from her mother.

Find Diandra:

On Intsagram @diandrafordwing

Online: www.booksbydiandra.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diandrafordwing