From Widowhood to Vibrant Living: A New Season Begins
How I’ve Found Peace, Purpose and Possibility After Loss – And How You Can Too
Welcome back to Season Four of The Widow Podcast. It feels really good to be back.
Nearly nine years since Simon died, I’ve been reflecting on everything that’s changed, not just in my own life, but in the way I support other widows. Over the past year, I’ve gone through some huge shifts. I trained as a Master Intuitive Psychology Coach, ran retreats here in the UK and in the US, and launched a new programme called Vibrant Living, which is all about what comes next.
This episode is a bit of a catch-up, but also a conversation about growth. The kind that happens quietly, over time, as we keep showing up for ourselves. I’ll talk honestly about where I’ve been, how I’ve changed, and what I’ve learned about creating a life that feels full again, not in spite of the grief, but alongside it.
In this episode, I share:
What’s changed for me since the last season
How I think about grief now, and what peace looks like
The power of community when you’re rebuilding after loss
What led me to retrain and deepen the work I do
Why I created Vibrant Living for widows ready for something more
Resources and Links
Join the Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership
Explore my retreats and coaching: karensutton.co.uk
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Writing New Chapters with Stacey Macdonald
In this week's episode I speak to an incredibly honest and inspiring lady, Stacey Macdonald. Stacey’s husband Chris died suddenly in December 2013 from a heart attack when their daughter was only 12 years old.
Stacey shares her journey of loss and how she navigated her way through her grief in her own unique way, a way in which we could all learn a lot from.
We discuss;
How Stacey and her daughter dealt with that first Christmas
The coping strategies Stacey used in her grief
The pivotal moment Stacey realised she had to make some changes
Supporting Children through their grief
Navigating new relationships
Deciding to live again after loss
The importance of leaning into your own intuition
Worrying about other people's judgements and assumptions
Guilt
Finding joy in today and writing the new chapters in our books with love and peace in our hearts
This really is such a wonderful conversation and I know you’ll be able to draw so much from this.
We got unexpectedly cut off at the end (the joys of living on a small island), so there is an abrupt finish to the conversation. We contemplated arranging another time to record an ending but I actually felt that Stacey’s final words of wisdom were so beautiful, it felt like the perfect end to a wonderful conversation, so we left it as it was.
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Writing New Chapters With Stacey Macdonald
Writing New Chapters with Stacey Macdonald
In this week's episode I speak to an incredibly honest and inspiring lady, Stacey Macdonald. Stacey’s husband Chris died suddenly in December 2013 from a heart attack when their daughter was only 12 years old.
Stacey shares her journey of loss and how she navigated her way through her grief in her own unique way, a way in which we could all learn a lot from.
We discuss;
How Stacey and her daughter dealt with that first Christmas
The coping strategies Stacey used in her grief
The pivotal moment Stacey realised she had to make some changes
Supporting Children through their grief
Navigating new relationships
Deciding to live again after loss
The importance of leaning into your own intuition
Worrying about other people's judgements and assumptions
Guilt
Finding joy in today and writing the new chapters in our books with love and peace in our hearts
This really is such a wonderful conversation and I know you’ll be able to draw so much from this.
We got unexpectedly cut off at the end (the joys of living on a small island), so there is an abrupt finish to the conversation. We contemplated arranging another time to record an ending but I actually felt that Staceys final words of wisdom were so beautiful, it felt like the perfect end to a wonderful conversation, so we left it at is was.
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Healing Through Grief: How it effects our bodies and ways to cope
There is a powerful connection between grief and the physical response that can occur within our body.
In fact, grief can show up in a variety of ways in our body.
Our body is communicating too us and in this episode we explore the impact of grief on our immune system and how to alleviate physical symptoms through self-care practices.
Listen as I talk about:
The physical toll of grief on your body and how it can manifest as symptoms
The impact of the stress response and how it affects your overall health
Practical tips and exercises to help you manage and alleviate grief
Ways to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and find relief
Resources:
Join my Free Facebook Group ‘Widowed and Rising’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/widowedandrising
My website https://www.karensutton.co.uk/
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Anniversaries, birthdays and holidays
This podcast is from last September. However, with more anniversaries, birthdays and holidays arising, I wanted to share it with you again.
These are often huge triggers for us in our grief leaving us unsure of what we should do to mark the occasion and how we can best support ourselves through them.
In this episode I talk about things you can do to honour your loved one, ways you can nurture your own needs and how our grief evolves over time.
It is a journey and we will all travel it at different paces and in different ways, there is no right or wrong, it's just finding the way that works best for you and being ok with that.
As hard as these days are it's important not to think of them as setbacks, but as an invitation to connect with our loved one, remember them and celebrate their life, eventually we will be able to do this with more love than pain.
Resources:
Join The Widows Membership:
https://www.karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership
Website: https://www.karensutton.co.uk/
The Widow Podcast is for people experiencing the loss of a life partner, who are looking for hope and support whilst navigating their way through this traumatic life event. If you're feeling stressed, anxious, confused, as if you're just existing day by day or you've felt isolated, disconnected and lonely in widowhood and want to find ways to manage your grief more positively, this podcast is for you.
Hosted by Karen Sutton, The Widow Coach, widow and mum. She'll share the emotional and practical ways to come through the trauma and take steps to begin to thrive. This is the show for you to learn how to accept your emotions, gain a sense of hope and give yourself permission to create a life of peace and balance. You'll discover coping strategies and personal development tools that take you from those dark places to much brighter days. We understand your grieving process and the pressures of bereavement here at The Widow Podcast.
Italia