Dear Divorce Diary: A Fresh Approach To Healing Grief & Building A Life Of Confidence After Divorce
This isn’t a breakup pep talk. It’s a full-body recalibration for women navigating life after divorce. Dear Divorce Diary is a podcast for women dealing with grief, loneliness, anxiety, anxious or avoidant attachment, and identity loss after divorce — especially when quick fixes, positivity, and spiritual fluff no longer work.
I’m Dawn Wiggins, therapist, coach, and homeopath, and this show goes where most divorce advice won’t: into your nervous system, your unspoken grief, your buried rage, and the parts of you that shut down just to survive.
Through honest conversation, somatic tools, EMDR- and IFS-informed work, and nervous-system support, each episode helps you feel instead of perform healing — and rebuild safety, confidence, and self-trust from the inside out.
You’ll hear raw solo episodes, real voice notes from women in the trenches, and intimate conversations with experts who don’t just talk about healing — they embody it.
If you’re tired of being told to “move on” while your body is still bracing, this podcast is your place to land. Your nervous system already knows the truth — it just needs a space that can hold it.
Dear Divorce Diary: A Fresh Approach To Healing Grief & Building A Life Of Confidence After Divorce
350. I Know the Divorce Was Necessary... So Why Do I Still Feel Guilty? | Guided Meditation
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Dear Divorce Diary: Dedicated to Healing
Exclusive access to premium content!Divorce guilt has a way of showing up long after the paperwork is signed.
Maybe you feel guilty about ending the marriage.
Maybe you feel guilty for staying too long.
Maybe you feel guilty for being angry, setting boundaries, disappointing people, or wanting more for your life.
And sometimes the hardest part is that guilt can feel like proof that you're still a good person.
In this guided healing meditation, Coach Tiffini helps you gently explore the deeper purpose guilt may be serving inside your nervous system. Through compassionate self-inquiry and parts-based reflection, you'll be invited to connect with the part of you carrying guilt and discover what it has been trying to protect all along.
This isn't about forcing forgiveness.
It's not about pretending everything is okay.
And it's definitely not about toxic positivity.
It's about creating enough safety to ask a different question:
Is this guilt showing me that I've violated my values—or is it simply reacting to discomfort, grief, change, or old programming?
If you've been carrying the weight of divorce guilt, self-blame, people-pleasing, or emotional responsibility for everyone around you, this meditation offers a gentle space to set some of that weight down.
Put on your headphones.
Find somewhere quiet.
And give yourself permission to receive the compassion you so freely offer everyone else.
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A podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.
Why Guilt Shows Up
Before we start, I just want to say this. About setting boundaries. About disappointing people. About wanting more people. So many women end up carrying guilt. Like it's proof that they're so loving. We're not here to share your guilt. We're not here to force it away. We're not doing toxic positivity. We're just gonna get really curious. Because underneath guilt, there's usually a part of you trying really hard to protect something. So get comfortable.
Welcome And Settle In
Hi, love. Welcome to Dear Divorce Diary, the podcast helping divorce days go beyond talk therapy to process your grief, find the healing you crave, and build back your confidence. I'm your host, Don Wiggins, a therapist, coach, integrative healer, and divorce day. Join me for a fresh approach to healing grief and building your confidence after divorce.
Find Where Guilt Lives
Let your body soften however it wants to soften and take a breath. A real one, not those tiny little survival breaths. The kind where your shoulders drop a little, the kind where your jaw loosens, the kind that lets your nervous system hear you're safe enough to be here right now. Now gently bring your attention inward. And just notice, where does guilt live in your body today? Your chest, your stomach, your throat, your shoulders. No need to fix it. No need to make it disappear. Just notice it.
Meet The Part Carrying Guilt
Now imagine this guilt is more than just a feeling. Imagine it as a part of you, a version of you. Maybe she's younger, maybe exhausted, maybe overwhelmed, maybe trying so hard to hold everything together. Maybe she learned a long time ago that guilt meant that she was still a good person. Let her appear however she wants. There's no pressure to force an image. And now gently ask her, what are you afraid would happen if you stopped carrying this guilt? Let whatever answer comes, come. No judging, no fixing, no editing. Maybe she says, then I'd be selfish. Then I'd stop caring. Then I would hurt someone. Then I'd become like him. Then I'd be a bad mom. Then people would be disappointed in me. Then I'd get it wrong. Just breathe with that for a second. Because guilt usually believes it's protecting something important. Not because you're broken. Not because you're bad. Because some part of you is trying.
Values Vs Old Programming
Now ask her, what are you trying to protect? Maybe it's your children, your goodness, your identity, your safety, your belonging, your values. Just listen. And now notice this. Guilt is not always truth. Sometimes guilt is love tangled up with fear. Sometimes it's old conditioning. Sometimes it's what happens when a woman who's used to people pleasing finally chooses herself. And sometimes it's just your nervous system panicking because you're doing something differently than you used to. Now imagine your present self stepping closer to this guilty part. Not to fight her, not to shame her, not to make her disappear. Just to sit beside her. And gently say, I see why you're here. I understand what you've been trying to do. But you don't have to carry all of this alone anymore. Now ask yourself, is this guilt showing me that I violated my values? Or is it reacting to discomfort, grief, change, or old programming? Take your time. And if the answer is yeah, I violated something important, then we honor that. Maybe repair is needed. Maybe accountability is needed. Or maybe compassion is needed. But punishment is not the same thing as healing. And if the answer is no, this is old guilt, protective guilt, learned guilt. And let yourself breathe into that truth.
Set It Down With New Truths
Imagine setting down a heavy bag you've been carrying for miles. Not abandoning responsibility. Just putting down what was never meant to crush you forever. And notice what happens in your body, even if it's subtle. Now place a hand somewhere supportive. Your heart, your chest, your belly, and quietly repeat. Feeling guilty does not automatically mean I've done something wrong. Discomfort does not mean that I'm bad. Being loving does not require self-punishment. I can care deeply without caring everything. I can be imperfect and still worthy of love. Take one more deep breath. And then ask yourself, what does the part of me carrying guilt need for me right now? Maybe it needs rest, truth, boundaries, grief, comfort, forgiveness, support, permission to stop caring so much. No wrong answer.
Permission To Disappoint People
And before we close, I just want you to remember this. You do not have to punish yourself forever in order to prove you have a good heart. You're allowed to grow. You're allowed to learn. You're allowed to make different choices. You are allowed to disappoint people and still be loving. You are allowed to release guilt that no longer belongs to you. And that doesn't make you selfish. It makes you human. Take one final deep breath. Feel the chair beneath you. Feel your feet. Feel your body here in this moment. And when you're ready, you can slowly come back. Not because everything is solved, but because maybe tonight you gave yourself a little more compassion than you usually do.
Closing And Where To Find More
And that matters diary is a podcast by My Coach Dawn. You can find more at MyCoachDon.com.
