Dear Divorce Diary: A Fresh Approach To Healing Grief & Building A Life Of Confidence After Divorce
371. What Are You Still Carrying That Doesn't Belong in Your Life After Divorce?
Aug 18, 2026
Season 5
Episode 371
My Coach Dawn
There are things you learned to carry because, at one point, you had to.
The responsibility. The mental load. Other people's expectations. Keeping everyone okay. Being the strong one. Being the woman who could handle it.
But just because you needed that version of yourself then doesn't mean you have to keep being her now.
This week, Dawn sits down with Alexis Contos, founder of The Breadwinners, a community redefining what it means to be an ambitious, successful woman—and creating spaces where women can put down the titles, roles, accomplishments and performance long enough to figure out who they actually are.
Which, hello. Divorce.
Because divorce has a way of forcing you to confront the identities you've accumulated—and decide which ones actually belong in the life you're building now.
Dawn and Alexis talk about:
- What you carry vs. what you bring into your relationships and your life
- The versions of yourself you never became because you got so good at being this one
- Why divorce can feel like both falling and failing in public
- The friendships, careers and identities we eventually outgrow
- Why protecting everyone else can quietly become sacrificing yourself
- The "egg" you're terrified to drop
- What happens when accomplished women stop performing and start telling the truth
- How to borrow someone else's belief in you while you're learning to believe in yourself
Because sometimes the next version of you doesn't need more.
She needs you to finally put something down.
So what are you still carrying that doesn't belong anymore?
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