Don't Forget To Breathe

This is our warp up of Season 2 and a look forward to Season 3.

Rena and Bruce look at another layer of the Holiday Sandwich, and talk about more personal experiences and offer resources, help lines and text lines to have close if you feel overwhelmed during the Holidays.

We find ourselves in the Holiday Sandwich; the space between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In this episode, Bruce talks very candidly about the Thanksgiving experience he just had, his STERB of anger and what comes next.

With the Holidays upon us, we discuss the impact the Holidays have had on them, along with what's coming up this year. We talk about the necessity of allowing yourself to do and feel what comes up for you during an especially emotional time of the year. We also put out a call for you to send a message to the loved ones who won't be with you this season.

In this episode, we try to explain what it means by "Doing the Work". And by doing do, Rena gets very open and personal about a loss she experienced this week, and how she is doing the work.

The word "grief" has typically been associated with death. In this episode, Rena and I discuss the actual meaning of Grief, and begin talking about the 40 different forms of Grief. In a world full of trauma and loss, you will encounter many people in your daily life that are grieving. Let's talk about that and the need to create space for Grief.

In this episode, Rena and I continue our "unperson" session from Nashville, as we discuss finding your joy during celebratory events, all the while you continue your journey through grief. We talk about some specific tools that can help you navigate the invitations that may or may not come.

Can you experience joy at a special occasion when you are in your journey of grief? Is it even ok to feel joy? What will people think of your tears? Does it mean you are "moving on"? Rena and Bruce dive into this subject and discuss those questions in this special episode recored just a few days before Bruce's Son's wedding.

Have you been in the grocery aisle, maybe near your child's favorite snack or food; maybe it was a certain brand of chips? And you could hear your child asking for their favorite; really hear their voice in your mind? Rena and I dive into those moments when the chips start to talk in the grocery aisle.

As parents who have experienced the death of your child, we have all had things said to us that make us say...inside..."Did you really just say that to me?" We have internal explosions or gasps of disbelief. In this episode, we expose and share some of the things that have been said to us and said to friends that leave us shaking our heads. We are getting real and raw in our talk, so there is definitely use of explicit language; there's your warning.

We are diving into a few ways survivors feel a sense of guilt,  or is it just another form of grief. We talk about how that can manifest itself into a sense of not allowing yourself to feel joy, and if you do have a moment of joy, it might be immediately followed with a sense of guilt. That guilt can be debilitating and lead you to anger, sadness, and even depression and despair.  But is it really "guilt"?

In the first season of our podcast, you got a very clear view of who I am by me telling my story. Now that we've added a Co-Host, I think it’s important for you to get to know her and hear her story as well. Rena is a Certified Grief Specialist, but so much more...

We begin Season 2 by adding a very special co-host, Rena Ooi, a Certified Grief Specialist. Rena has walked in your shoes in a powerful way. She will share her story in Season 2, Episode 7.In this Preview, we talk about some of the subjects we will discuss this season and how we hope to help you navigate your grief and recovery.

This will be a really short chat; I didn’t plan on doing an episode for a couple of weeks, but this thought popped up and I wanted to share it. This will be short, but hopefully, you will find something in it that might help. The big theme of my New Year’s Message…YOU MADE IT!

In the midst of the Holidays, The First Time Since talks about those events, favorite places and special occasions that we experience for the first time since losing a child, or anyone close to us. Simply living life day by day will reveal moments of remembrance that can trigger sorrow, pain, anger and more. But this can feel overwhelming during the Holiday season. If only to know that you are not alone with your avalanche of emotions, maybe this episode will give you a glimmer of connection with another grieving parent.

I believe that during the course of our lives, both individually and collectively, our daily activities, experiences and relationships are woven together to eventually form an amazing and complex tapestry; our very own life’s tapestry. A tapestry is made up of so many threads, each with its own purpose and distinct place in the pattern being created.  But why those threads; why then; why now. Let's discover some of those threads in my life's tapestry.

It was time to go back to Denver; time to get out of Louisiana; time to leave behind the horrible experience of burying my daughter. There was nothing to live for any longer. I was cloaked in despair; a walking death-wish. But someone had another plan for my life. This is the story of a divine encounter that changed everything.

From the moment I entered the Funeral Home until the time I exited, I was left with a lasting impression of the "business" of funerals. On top of being there because my child had died, the experience was one that I hope no parent will need to go through, even though I know it happens every single day to someone.

So on a day like any other, I got the call no parent ever wants to get, or ever really imagines they will, and one they never should. My daughter was dead. This episode covers the moment my life changed forever, and the living nightmare that began the next chapter of my life.

Don’t Forget To Breathe is a podcast that follows the journey of a father who suddenly lost his 20 year old daughter, and his life after a tragedy that no parent should ever endure. In these podcast episodes, I’ll talk about the last 14 years, my grief, my anger, my depression, my emptiness, and even those moments of joy, of happiness, of learning to laugh again. I’m planning to open my deepest thoughts and feeling to you during this ongoing journey. Also, we’ll talk about a variety of thoughts and feeling that you have, either from your loss of a child, or if you are walking beside some who is living the unimaginable. I’ll talk with guests who have their own story to share that might help you, and I’ll chat with a therapist who can share her tools and advise that also might help. So if you have a friend that has lost a child, please share this podcast with them. If it is you who has lost a child, then I hope you find something here that helps. Or at the very least, a feeling of knowing that someone, somewhere, understands the emotions you feel. You’re not alone.If you have questions or topics you’d like to discuss, let me know.But please don’t look at this podcast series as a “how to” on anything, but I will try to help. I’m no therapist or counselor.  I’m just a man, a Dad, and now I guess, a storyteller. So let’s begin with my story, a tragic story…and unfortunately…a true story.