Podcast
GRIEF: Let's Make Sense of This Sh*t
Hosted by Dylan · EN
This show is for adults in active mourning who want gentle, 5-minute grief rituals when loss feels overwhelming—morning dread, bedtime waves, guilt loops, or "I can't function today" fog. We own grief, loss, bereavement, mourning, anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, and death-specific situations. We reposition away from generic "healing journey" and anxiety/CPTSD overlap: every title leads with Grief/Loss/Bereavement, never bare grounding or breathing. We validate without toxic positivity and never impose timelines ("stages by month three"). We never replace grief counseling or crisis support. --- Topics include: Grieving.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/grief-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6352946/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/grief-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6352946/support.
39episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How to Pre-agreed Signal: Gentle Way to Ask for Grief Support
2w ago00:08:31Tap to summarizeIn this episode, grief can suddenly strip away the ability to speak just when support feels most needed. Many listeners know the frustration of frozen words and scattered thoughts during intense loss. This practice offers a simple pre-agreed signal using a gesture or object to request quiet company without any explanation. The approach stays private between you and one trusted person and takes only minutes to set up in advance. It draws on established grief protocols to lower pressure during emotional freezes. By preparing the cue ahead of time you create a reliable path to connection that respects the unpredictable rhythm of mourning. The method helps bridge silence with presence rather than forcing speech that will not come. What You'll Learn: • How grief disrupts language centers in the brain during strong emotion. • Why pre-agreed signals reduce the need to form sentences. • The role of consistent gestures in bypassing verbal blocks. • How shared understanding protects privacy in support requests. • Ways small agreements lower isolation risk after loss. Key Insights: • Choose one trusted person and discuss the signal during calm moments. • Keep the cue simple such as texting a word or touching your wrist. • Test the signal once while emotions feel steady to build familiarity. • Focus only on presence without added explanation or solutions. • Allow the cue to evolve if another option feels more natural later. Recommended Resources: • The Dougy Center at dougy.org for practical grief support tools • Journal of Loss and Trauma for research on non-verbal coping strategies • Grief support networks listed through the National Alliance on Mental Illness Coming Up Next Tune in for another short practice that adds one more gentle tool for reaching out when grief interrupts daily life. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Navigate Grief Anniversaries: Gentle Support on Hard Dates
2w ago00:26:08Tap to summarizeIn this episode we explore how anniversaries birthdays and firsts after a loss can stir unexpected waves of grief. These dates arrive on the calendar whether you feel ready or not pulling attention back to the absence in quiet yet powerful ways. The conversation moves gently through personal stories research and listener experiences to show that such reactions belong to the ordinary rhythm of grief rather than any sign of being stuck. You are invited to listen at your own pace with space to simply notice what arises. The discussion honors how the body and mind register these markers while ordinary life continues around them offering steadier footing for meeting each date as it comes. What You'll Learn: • Calendar dates often activate stress responses tied to the original loss. • Anniversaries birthdays and firsts carry reminders that arrive without warning. • Physical sensations can surface before thoughts fully register the absence. • Later years bring mixed feelings as new experiences layer onto old ones. • Recognizing these patterns reduces surprise and eases some internal pressure. Key Insights: • Allow the day to unfold without forcing a specific plan or outcome. • Notice body signals early and offer simple comforts like fresh air. • Keep routines flexible so ordinary tasks share space with whatever arises. • Share reflections with trusted listeners to feel less alone on marked days. • Return to small grounding steps when waves of memory appear unexpectedly. Recommended Resources: • It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine • The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman • GriefShare.org support groups and articles on anniversary grief Coming Up Next Next time we turn to how grief shows up in everyday conversations and the small ways support can land when words feel hard to find. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Learning Bedtime Grounding: 5-4-3-2-1 Script for Grief
3w ago00:06:37Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore a simple 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique to help manage grief when it surfaces at bedtime. Many listeners find that the quiet hours bring back memories and emotions making sleep difficult. This short practice offers a gentle way to anchor yourself in the present moment without pushing feelings away. By focusing on your senses you can create space for rest and ease the mind's looping thoughts. It's designed to be brief and compassionate supporting you on nights when loss feels heaviest. The method combines sensory awareness with breath to offer a steady path toward calmer evenings and more restful nights ahead without pressure to feel different right away. What You'll Learn: • How sensory naming interrupts grief-related thought patterns at night • Recognizing the role of breath in activating calm responses in the body • Learning why grounding helps shift attention from past memories to present • Discovering benefits of brief practices for nighttime restlessness due to loss • Exploring how non-judgmental observation supports emotional presence during evenings Key Insights • Allow yourself to name sensations without forcing any specific outcome • Return to the counting rhythm whenever your mind drifts during the exercise • Incorporate this practice into your bedtime routine for consistent gentle support • Notice physical contact with objects to bring awareness back into your body • Use slow exhales to signal safety to your nervous system before sleep Recommended Resources: • National Sleep Foundation website for evidence-based sleep hygiene tips • Harvard Health Publishing articles on mindfulness practices for emotional health • Sleep Medicine Center research summaries from University of Pittsburgh studies Coming Up Next Learn additional evening and morning tools to support your grief journey with practical self-care ideas that fit real life. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Understanding Grieving Complicated Bonds: Holding Both Love
3w ago00:25:46Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore the weight of grieving relationships that held both real care and real pain at once. Many listeners carry bonds that never fit a single story, and the pressure to rewrite the past only adds confusion. We sit with mixed memories without forcing them into neat categories or erasing either the warmth or the hurt. Drawing from research on ambiguous loss and complicated grief, this conversation offers space to hold every part of what was true. You do not need to choose one feeling or simplify the story to find relief. Instead we stay present with the full picture as it continues to shift and settle in its own time. What You'll Learn: • How mixed memories create pressure to rewrite the past. • Why grief resists simple labels in complicated relationships. • The role of ambiguous loss in bonds that hold both care and pain. • How attempts to idealize or villainize limit the grieving process. • Research showing flexible memory patterns support steadier adaptation after loss. Key Insights: • Notice the urge to edit memories without acting on it right away. • Allow both affection and disappointment to exist side by side. • Give yourself permission for feelings to change from one day to the next. • Reduce pressure to resolve contradictions into one clear story. • Let the full relationship remain present without forcing agreement between parts. Recommended Resources: • It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine • Ambiguous Loss by Pauline Boss • Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University Coming Up Next Next time we explore how these mixed memories appear in everyday moments and the small practices that help you carry them forward with less internal conflict. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Learning 5-Minute Body Scan Meditation to Calm Grief Exhaustion
4w ago00:07:11Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore how grief can manifest as physical exhaustion in your body, leaving you feeling drained despite rest. You'll discover a simple five-minute body scan designed specifically for this heavy weight. This practice helps shift focus from looping thoughts to physical sensations, offering a gentle way to release tension stored in muscles. Acknowledge that your body has been carrying a lot, and this episode provides a supportive space to notice without judgment. Through mindful attention from feet to head, find moments of calm amid the fatigue. The guided scan moves slowly upward, allowing natural breathing and awareness to ease the load without pressure to change anything. What You'll Learn: • How grief creates heaviness and tightness throughout the body. • Why a slow body scan interrupts looping mental worries effectively. • The way attention to physical sensations supports calmer states naturally. • How releasing stored tension reduces overall daily exhaustion levels. • Benefits of repeating the scan to build lasting coping habits. Key Insights: • Start the scan at your feet and move upward slowly. • Notice sensations without any effort to fix or release them. • Breathe naturally and return focus gently when the mind wanders. • Practice once in the morning and once before bed for three days. • Shorten any section if it feels overwhelming while keeping the flow. Recommended Resources: • University of Wisconsin Center for Healthy Minds mindfulness tools • The Compassionate Friends grief support network • Jon Kabat-Zinn guided body scan recordings Coming Up Next Tune in next time for another practical approach to easing grief's daily impact with simple tools that build resilience over time. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Anger & Numbness After Loss: Words That Ease Connection
Jun 400:27:02Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore the tangled emotions that follow loss, especially the anger that flares unexpectedly, the numbness that dulls daily life, and the love that lingers without a place to land. These feelings often arrive without warning and resist simple explanations, leaving many unsure how to describe them to others or even themselves. Listener stories and personal reflections show how naming these experiences can gently reduce their isolating weight. We move slowly through the topic because grief deserves patience instead of pressure to resolve quickly. The conversation draws on real accounts of how words help carry these mixed emotions forward without forcing order. What You'll Learn: • Anger after loss often stems from a sense of injustice and needs space to exist. • Numbness serves as a temporary shield that can delay noticing small moments of connection. • Love remains active even when the person is gone and requires new ways to express it. • Naming emotions reduces shame and helps explain reactions to supportive friends or family. • Grief mixes these feelings hourly, and labels offer tools rather than strict rules to follow. Key Insights: • Allow anger to surface without judgment and describe it in simple phrases to ease its intensity. • Treat numbness with extra rest and avoid pushing for immediate emotional breakthroughs each day. • Write short notes about the person who died to keep love moving outward in quiet ways. • Share one honest sentence about your feelings with a trusted listener when the moment feels right. • Return to the same notebook or phrase over weeks to track gentle shifts without forcing progress. Recommended Resources: • On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross • The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman • Grief support tools at https://www.grief.com Coming Up Next Tune in for practical phrases that turn unnamed grief into words you can hold and share more easily. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Explore a 5-Minute Practice for Guilt After Losing a Loved One
Jun 100:07:21Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore a simple five-minute practice designed to help ease feelings of guilt that often accompany grief after loss. Guilt can appear suddenly without warning, replaying past moments and sparking questions about what might have been different. This episode offers a gentle accessible tool using breath self-compassion phrases and mindful touch to soften that weight without judgment or pressure to change how you feel. Whether you are sitting quietly or in the middle of a difficult afternoon the practice meets you exactly where you are. It acknowledges that caring deeply is part of love and small consistent steps create space for relief. Listeners discover how naming guilt and pairing it with steady breathing interrupts self-blame cycles in a steady reliable way. What You'll Learn: • Guilt in grief signals deep care rather than any wrongdoing. • Naming guilt aloud reduces its emotional intensity over time. • Self-compassion phrases activate the body's natural calming response. • Timed breathing keeps the mind engaged without feeling overwhelmed. • Small daily repetitions build steadier emotional support gradually. Key Insights: • Begin with slow inhales for four counts and exhales for six. • Repeat the phrase I did the best I could on each exhale. • Place one hand on your heart as a steady physical anchor. • Exhale tension while gently releasing the weight of guilt. • Return to the practice without judgment whenever guilt arises again. Recommended Resources: • The Compassionate Friends at compassionatefriends.org for peer grief support • It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine • NHPCO caregiver grief resources at nhpco.org Coming Up Next Discover practical tools for expressing and moving through anger in grief with the same grounded approach. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Grief Waves Years Later: Gentle Support for Your
May 2800:24:09Tap to summarizeIn this episode, grief can return in unexpected waves long after you thought the hardest days were behind you. These moments often arrive without warning, triggered by a scent, a sound, or even an ordinary afternoon light. You might feel like progress has slipped away when life around you seems steady again. This experience is common and natural rather than a sign of failure. We explore why these later surges happen and how they fit the ongoing rhythm of healing. Acknowledging these waves helps ease the isolation many feel when others appear to have moved forward. Your timeline remains your own and these feelings do not mean you are broken. What You'll Learn: • How grief oscillates between facing loss and handling daily life. • Why unexpected triggers surface months or years after the loss. • The role of continuing bonds in keeping connection with loved ones. • How Worden's tasks allow revisiting stages without signaling failure. • That waves reflect normal patterns instead of setbacks or regression. Key Insights: • Allow physical sensations to arise without immediate judgment or resistance. • Stay present in the room instead of walking away from the wave. • Recognize that shifting between feeling and functioning supports healthy balance. • Honor your unique timeline without comparing it to anyone else's pace. • Carry quiet connection forward while managing everyday responsibilities. Recommended Resources: • The Dual Process Model by Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut • Worden's Tasks of Mourning in grief counseling resources • Continuing Bonds by Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman, and Steven Nickman Coming Up Next Next time we hear more listener stories about navigating anniversary triggers and finding steady ground amid the waves. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →Rebuilding Identity After Partner Loss: Finding Your Way Forward
May 2500:25:36Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we gently explore the disorienting experience of losing a long-term partner and the quiet challenge of rebuilding your sense of self afterward. Many listeners recognize how shared routines and roles once defined daily life, leaving an unexpected emptiness when those patterns fade. This conversation moves slowly and respectfully, acknowledging that identity does not snap back into place or vanish entirely. Instead, small ordinary moments reveal how much of your inner world once included another person. We honor the courage it takes to notice these shifts without pressure to fix them quickly. The focus stays on patient self-discovery and the gradual emergence of new preferences that feel true to you now. Through personal reflections and research insights, we create space to sit with uncertainty while recognizing that your story continues to unfold at its own pace. What You'll Learn: • How long partnerships quietly shape daily self-concept and roles • Why identity questions surface during ordinary choices after loss • The non-linear process of untangling merged habits over time • Research showing grief forces reevaluation of steady self-images • How small solo decisions begin revealing new personal preferences Key Insights • Keep a simple notebook to record your own preferences without judgment • Allow empty spaces in routines instead of rushing to fill them • Test low-stakes choices like coffee brands or weekend plans alone • Honor both freeing and heavy feelings as they arise naturally • Reconnect gradually with interests once set aside during partnership Recommended Resources: • It's Okay That You're Not Okay by Megan Devine • The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman • Widow to Widow by Phyllis R. Silverman Coming Up Next Tune in to discover how others have navigated similar identity questions through gentle experiments that build steadier footing without forcing quick resolutions. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...This episode includes AI-generated content.
Transcribe →Evening Grief Release: Gentle Ways to Let Go at Night
May 1100:42:45Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we're diving deep into something that doesn't get talked about enough: what happens to your grief when the sun goes down. If you're someone who feels like nighttime is when your loss hits hardest, when the weight of missing someone or missing how things used to be becomes almost unbearable, this episode is for you. Dylan explores the real physiological reasons why grief amplifies in the evening hours, and more importantly, he walks you through practical, gentle rituals you can use to move through that nighttime heaviness instead of just lying there with it all night long. This isn't about making grief disappear. It's about creating intentional space to process what you're feeling so you can actually rest. What You'll Learn: • Why nighttime grief feels heavier and more intense than daytime grief • How your nervous system changes as the sun sets and impacts emotional processing • The physiological reasons your defenses are lower in evening hours • Specific rituals designed to help you move through grief before bed • How to honor what you're feeling while also creating space for rest Key Insights • Meeting nighttime grief with intention helps release it instead of letting it build • Your body's vulnerability at night isn't weakness, it's an opportunity for processing • Creating a deliberate evening practice can transform your relationship to nighttime sadness • Grief processing at night is different and deserves its own specific approach • Honoring loss while also prioritizing your own rest are not in conflict Recommended Resources: • The Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University offers research-backed resources for processing intense grief • The National Sleep Foundation provides guidance on sleep and emotional health • The Dinner Party offers community and support for people grieving significant loss Coming Up Next In our next episode, we're exploring what happens when grief shows up unexpectedly during moments that are supposed to be happy. Join us as we talk about navigating those complicated emotions and finding authenticity in spaces where you're expected to smile. 📩 Have questions or want to share your experience? Reach out at grief@senseofthisshit.com. 💛 Join Our Supporters Club 💛 Help keep these vital conversations alive—Click Here: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
Transcribe →