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Beyond the Loss: Life and Identity After a Child Dies
Over time, the conversations we choose to have begin to reflect what matters most.
If you’ve been part of this podcast, you’ve heard me speak about human development, systems thinking, and the ways we make meaning of our lives and work. That work continues—and remains at the core of my coaching and professional practice.
What has changed is the space where I am choosing to have a different kind of conversation.
After the death of my son, Michael, I felt called to create a more personal place—one that speaks directly to the experience of loss, and to the questions that emerge when life no longer looks the way it once did.
That space is now Beyond the Loss.
This podcast is for parents who have lost a child, and for those who support them. It is not about fixing grief or finding closure, but about understanding how we continue to live, to make meaning, and to become—after loss.
If you are looking for my current podcast,
you will now find me there.
I invite you to join me on Beyond the Loss.
You are welcome.
Beyond the Loss: Life and Identity After a Child Dies
Episode 141: Conscious Community Segment: Anxiety and Relationships in a Post-COVID World
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As an ever-increasing portion of the population becomes vaccinated and fewer people are required to wear masks, it can be difficult to process the changes in COVID protocols and what constitutes a safe environment on a day-to-day basis. Other accompanying changes such as crowded public spaces and a rise in traffic can trigger anxiety, irritability, and feelings of being overwhelmed.
In today’s Conscious Community Segment episode we focus on two key issues that are being experienced as we transition back to life and work after the isolation of the pandemic, namely anxiety and relationship strain. Many of us have been experiencing anxiety which can manifest in a variety of ways, such as adrenal exhaustion being mistaken for a panic attack. Relationships have also taken tremendous strain under the unprecedented pressures of the pandemic, often resulting in an uneven balance of exchange.
As we navigate the easing of restrictions it’s important to monitor how you are responding to these changes emotionally and physically. In this solo cast, Dr. Sharon Spano discusses how to approach a return to life and work, while remaining mindful of one’s responses after more than a year of living in a continually stressed state. Join us today for helpful strategies and more information on the topics discussed.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The many ways that anxiety can manifest depending on your personality and context.
- How adrenal exhaustion can be mistaken for a panic attack.
- Anxiety is a symptom of trauma being trapped in the body.
- An introduction to the work of Dr. Peter Levine and his work on the somatic release of trauma in the body.
- How to cope with the transition into less strict COVID measures after living in various degrees of isolation for the past fourteen plus months.
- Monitoring your feelings physically and emotionally as you navigate busier spaces with more people.
- Why you’re likely to be more irritable or anxious in situations with large amounts of people.
- Why it’s important to practice patients with people as you go out into the world.
- Navigating the increase in traffic that accompanies the easing measures of lockdown.
- Why it’s important to acknowledge the difficulties you have faced so as not to create a frozen state of anxiety that will cause you health issues in the future.
- Making sure you seek out help if you are experiencing debilitating symptoms.
- Addressing the grief that many people are going through as a result of the COVID pandemic.
- How to approach personal relationships that have been affected or drastically altered by the pandemic.
- The balance of exchange in personal relationships and strategies for addressing imbalances.