Episode 123: New Year, New Beginnings and Reclaiming our Lives

We open the new year with a clear message: survival proves strength, and reclaiming life after suicide loss does not mean forgetting or betraying love. We share tools to release guilt, set humane intentions, and begin again with small, sustainable steps.

• naming survival as strength, not perfection
• reclaiming peace, voice, choices, and joy
• permission to want more without guilt
• micro steps toward living: calm, laughter, connection
• turning pain into compassion, boundaries, and clarity
• intentions for 2026 that anchor identity and healing

Join my free online event, as mentioned in this episode, “Letting Go of Guilt in the New Year” on January 14 at 10 a.m. MST.  Click this link to register and save your spot. If you can't attend live, it's totally okay! A replay will be emailed out the next day!

https://www.survived-to-thrive.com/how-to-feel-better-course

As always, thanks for listening!

We are a community dedicated to empower survivors of suicide loss along their grief journey. We invite you to check out our website to sign up for our weekly newsletter, along with other free materials."

Website: https://www.survived-to-thrive.com/

Email: amy@survived-to-thrive.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You are listening to the Survived to Thrive podcast with Amy Miller, a podcast for survivors of suicide loss. In this weekly podcast, you will learn more about your unique experiences and gain insights on your brain and how it processes grief and loss due to a loved one's suicide. While suicide grief comes in all shapes and sizes, Amy shows you that you still can have a life full of joy and fulfillment, even though your loved one died. You don't have to just survive anymore. You can thrive.

New Year Invitation And Free Class

Naming Strength And Survival

Reclaiming Life Versus Forgetting

Permission To Want More

Small Starts Toward Living Again

Turning Pain Into Growth

Empowering Intentions For 2026

SPEAKER_01 1:00

This is the first podcast episode of 2026. I am so excited about this year. I'm just looking forward to it. I just feel like this is a time of reclaiming our lives as survivors of suicide loss. I think there is a general feeling of it's time to shift. Okay. It's time to find some moments of peace. It is time to find moments of joy. And it's time to let go of some of the things that are not serving us. And I'm so looking forward to this new year. So before we get started in this topic, I want to offer you a special invitation to my free online event that I am hosting on January 14th, which is next Wednesday at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. And it's a free online vent. And the topic we're going to discuss is letting go of guilt in the new year. Because I feel like there's so much in 2025 that we've been carrying that needs to be let go. And I can't think of anything more important to let go of than guilt. So I want to offer you a personal invitation and send this out to you to join this free class. You have to go to my website at www.survive-2-thrive.com. A pop window will pop up, and there you can register for my free class. Also, I'm going to post the link in the show notes of this episode so that you can go directly to the sign-up page and there you can register and save your seat there. So I really hope you'll join me. It's going to be an amazing class. You're going to be learning a lot of great things that I think is going to be useful. You're going to be learning tools that are going to really help you to release so much of that guilt that you've been carrying since the passing of your loved ones. So I hope you'll really take advantage of it. All right. Now that that's all done, I just wanted to open with this truth. Okay. You are stronger than you think. You are. Not because you asked to be strong and not because this was fair, but because you are still here breathing, listening, choosing again. Right? A new year doesn't erase what you've been through, but it does offer something powerful. And that is a reminder that you are still alive. And that matters more than you may realize right now. Okay. So I first want to talk about the strength it took to get where you are. Okay. And first I have to acknowledge that each and every one of us that's listening here today might be in a different place along our grief journey. Okay. We might be at a different spot. We might be at a different crossroads. We might be in the middle somewhere, or we might be in the beginning. We might be at a point where we have to decide which direction to go. Okay. But the point is that all of us are on our own unique journey in grief. Right. And you didn't arrive at this point by accident. You didn't. You survived. You survived shock. You survived trauma. You survived the questions with no answers. And you survived days you didn't think you could get through, right? Let's face it. Sometimes you the pain felt feels so overwhelming and so all-encompassing. There are many times you wonder if you could survive it. Okay. So even if you don't feel strong, your survival is proof that you are. Strength after suicide loss doesn't always look brave or confident. Okay. Sometimes it looks like getting out of bed. Sometimes it looks like saying no to what drains you. Okay. Or maybe it looks like loving other people. Maybe it looks like choosing not to give up on yourself. That, my friend, is resilience. And resilience is the foundation of every new beginning. Okay. One of the things I always want to reiterate when we're talking about new year and a new beginning is that the new year is not about forgetting, it's about reclaiming. Okay. Many survivors struggle with this fear. Okay. They struggle if I start a new chapter. Does that mean I'm leaving them behind? And I always emphatically exclaim the answer is no. Okay. New beginnings after suicide loss are not about forgetting. They are about reclaiming what grief tried to steal from you, right? Grief tries to steal your peace, your confidence, your sense of direction, your ability to imagine a future. Okay. So my reminder for you is grief may have knocked you down, but it does not get to define the rest of your life. Okay. So this year of 2026 can be about reclaiming, right? It can be about reclaiming your voice. It can be about reclaiming your choices. How many of us feel like our choices have been taken away because of the decision our loved one made? Right? 2026 can be the year to reclaim your choices. 2026 can be about reclaiming your right to experience joy again. How many of us feel like joy will never be available or possible? Or maybe we feel unworthy, right, to experience joy again. Not true. This is something we can reclaim. Okay. This year can be about reclaiming your right to live fully, even while grieving. I think so many of us, because we've gone through this grief experience, we feel like the grieving is never going to end. So we feel like we'll never be able to live our full selves again. And that is absolutely not true. Okay. You have a right to live fully, even while grieving. And my reminder to you is that it is not betrayal, that is self-honoring. Okay. The next thing I want to talk about and give you permission to have is that you are allowed to want more. Okay. This is something that survivors are rarely told, right? That you're allowed to want more from your life even after suicide loss. There's so many survivors, especially survivors who've lost their children or who have lost their spouse. I find this to be the most common amongst those survivors. Whether they feel to want to have more. Okay. And I also want you to know that wanting more from your life or wanting peace doesn't mean you loved them less. Wanting joy doesn't mean you've moved on. And wanting purpose doesn't erase your grief. It means you are human and it means you are still alive. And I think it's going back to the roots of who we are. We are a species of progress. We are a species of wanting more, of achieving more, of doing more, of having more. Okay. It's a human thing. It's a human thing. It's an alive thing. It's just about being human and alive. So this year you don't have to settle for merely surviving. Okay? You're allowed to ask, what would it look like to live again? Okay. Now, living might start small. Right? Maybe it will look like feeling moments of calm. When was the last time you felt calm? Okay. Even having small moments of feeling calm. Living might be laughing without guilt. Okay? Maybe a joke. Maybe something that, you know, brings a smile to your face. Right? Without guilt. Living might start like making small plans again. Just small things, little things. Maybe just going for a walk. Maybe making that phone call. Right? Or texting that friend. Living might look like trusting yourself again. Even if it's small micro trusts. Okay. These are not selfish desires. These are signs of healing. Okay. One of the most empowering shifts survivors can make is this. Your pain does not get to be wasted. Okay. That doesn't mean what happened was meant to be. It means you get to decide what comes next. Many survivors discover strengths they never knew they had, right? Some of the things that I find that survivors, when they really look deeply at their grief experience, it exposes a lot about them. And it will a lot of times bring to the surface so that you can discover your strains, right? And those are things like deeper compassion, right? Clearer boundaries. Okay. A sense or a stronger sense, I should say, of what truly matters. Right. Or a desire to live more intentionally. Okay. So this year can be about channeling your experience into growth, into meaning, into self-trust, or a life aligned with your values. Your story is not over, you're not finished, and your future does not have to be defined by loss alone. Okay. So what are some empowering intentions for the new year? What I would like to convey is that instead of resolutions, I invite you to set empowering intentions. Intentions that remind you who you are becoming. Right? So here are a few examples. This year, I choose myself without guilt. This year, I honor my grief and my life. This year, I trust myself again. This year I allow happiness without apology. This year I reclaim my power. Okay. You don't have to accomplish everything. You don't have to rush healing. You only have to keep choosing yourself. Okay. Here's my reminder for you as you step forward. Okay. As we close today, I want you to hear this. You are not broken. You are not weak. You are not behind. You are a survivor. And even after suicide loss, your life still holds meaning, possibility, and purpose. Okay. This new year doesn't demand that you forget. It invites you to rise at your own pace. You get to build a life that honors your love and your future. And I promise you this you are more capable, more resilient, and more powerful than grief wants you to believe. So if you don't get anything else out of this podcast episode, I hope you will get this truth. Okay. So thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate you. Thank you for choosing to continue and thank you for allowing yourself to begin again. Just know that I love you with all my heart. I can't wait to see you all in my class next week. Again, January 14th, 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Don't forget to sign up. Again, the registration link will be in the show notes. But you can also visit my website, www.survive-2-thrive.com. Thank you so much, my friends. I hope you have a great week. And remember, 2026 is going to be the new year with new beginnings, and it's going to be the year you're going to be reclaiming your life. Thanks again. Have a great week. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

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