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Self-Care

Are You Lonely?

August 1, 2026 by Emily Thiroux Leave a Comment

Of all the challenges that people face while grieving, the one I hear the most about is loneliness. This can happen before and or after the death of a loved one.  As we get older, most often we become less social because often it is just too hard. Maybe you can’t drive and don’t have transportation. Maybe you feel you don’t have the energy to go anyplace. Maybe you have lost touch with your friends and maybe even with your family. I am sure you can think of even more excuses. The good news is you can do something to negate all these excuses.

Do you find yourself sitting alone in your home bemoaning the fact that no one is with you? Try calling a friend. If they live nearby, invite them to visit you or arrange to meet them for coffee or lunch. They may be lonely too and would love to spend sone time with you. I have a neighbor who I am in contact with every day. She’ll bring her little dog to visit or she’ll come to see if I have an ingredient she next to follow a recipe she wants to try. I always welcome her visits, and I am grateful for the way we care for each other.

What would you love to do? I am now doing watercolor painting with friends every week. I love spending time with them as much as I enjoy painting. One member of that group invited me to join a group she is in who attend plays and concerts together, and I love that. We even go out to dinner together after the matinees. I have another friend that I attend film festivals with and we also take online painting classes together.

Being around other people who you enjoy is very important. Staying home by yourself all the time can be very lonely and even dangerous. Dr. Julianne Holt-Lundstad, director of Brigham Young University’s Social Connection & Health Lab says, “Isolation and loneliness have been found to harm health as much or more than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” This statement startled me and makes me feel good about my commitment to stay connected.

What can you do now to stay connected?

 

 

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Filed Under: Community, Grief, Happiness, Joy, Loneliness, Self-Care, Support Tagged With: healthy coping mechanisms, how to deal with grief, loneliness, reclaiming your joy, self-care, support

Smile

July 25, 2026 by Emily Thiroux Leave a Comment

While dealing with, grief we often forget to smile. We aren’t noticing things that are still there that we would have smiled about in the past. An easy way to deal with this issue is to be mindful.

I noted that I wasn’t feeling very happy lately, so I started paying attention to my surroundings, and immediately, I had much to smile about. My friend was visiting, and I noticed she had on a really cute dress that I hadn’t seen before. When I complimented her, she smiled and did a few model poses, and I smiled right back at her. That felt so good, and it was easy.

Later I was sitting where I could see my back yard. There is so much to look at, and I was amazed at the beauty of ever-changing view. I remembered that last year I had the huge avocado tree harvested and I was able to donate the half a ton of avocados to several food banks who feed the hungry. That made lots of people happy. The tree is heathy, beautiful, and strong, and I smiled at knowing we will have lots to donate again this year.

After this beautiful day, I wrote in my journal creating a smile list include some of the things that make me happy like these:

  • Painting watercolors
  • Baking cookies
  • Watching puffy white clouds float by
  • Watching the sun rise or set
  • Seeing rainbows
  • Hearing the neighborhood children laugh and play
  • Writing letters to friends
  • Getting and giving a hug with a friend
  • Smelling fresh laundry when it comes out of the dryer
  • Listening to many kinds of music
  • Playing with my neighbor’s dog

I could go on and on. I am sure you can relate to many of the items on my list, and I am sure you have many of your own. Now is a good time to write a smile list in your journal. Make it as long as you can and be sure to leave room to include more things as you think of them. Notice how you feel as you write the list. You will probably have lots of smiles, and a few tears may sneak in too. Take good care of yourself as you write your list.

Whenever you start to feel down, return to this page in you journal to help you to remember you how beautiful your smile is.

Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief

Grief and Happiness Handbook

Grief and Happiness Cards

Grief and Happiness weekly Free Gatherings

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Filed Under: Grief, Happiness, Joy, Self-Care, Smile, Support, Uncategorized Tagged With: friends, Gratitude, happiness, how to deal with grief, Joy, reclaiming your joy, self-care, support

What Do You See?

July 18, 2026 by Emily Thiroux

So many times, we automatically choose to see the negative view of things like Debbie Downer on Saturday Night Live. She just never saw things that were positive. That is an easy trap to fall into when you are already feeling low like when you are grieving. The good news is, when you pay attention and catch yourself going down that dark path, you can put on the brakes and choose to look at things differently.

I went through a long period in early grief where I knew no one wanted to be around me. I thought of myself as a black widow who was poisonous to others around me who weren’t grieving. Now I wonder why that ever came to my mind. I started paying attention to my thoughts and choosing people I would like to visit or make friends with. I realized I could control my destiny, so that is what I do now.

What are you seeing now?

Henry David Thoreau said: “It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.”

 

Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief

Grief and Happiness Handbook

Grief and Happiness Cards

Grief and Happiness weekly Free Gatherings

[email protected]

Dream Builder Life Coach

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Filed Under: Change, Grief, Self-Care, Support Tagged With: healthy coping mechanisms, how to deal with grief, self-care, support, writing through grief

Feelings

July 5, 2026 by Emily Thiroux

An old song from 2003 written by Bobby Solo sometimes gets stuck in my head:

Feelings, nothing more than feelings,

Trying to forget my,

Feelings of love

It’s a sad song about living without the lover he no longer has. Many times, relationships end before both people in the couples ar ready.  The best way to avoid this situation is to spend time to nurture the relationships the from the start.

Taking care of relationships while both people are healthy is wonderful, but we aren’t always that lucky. If you are in a position where you are both feeling pretty good, take advantage of that, and if you have children still living with you or close by, involve them too.

Often, we get too busy to take good care of ourselves and our loved ones. Don’t let that happen to you. Time flies by so quickly! Find ways to make the most of your times together. Schedule a family game night or dinners or a dessert party. Or have creative times together where you plant seeds or plants in your gardens, or barbeque and make homemade ice cream with peaches from off your trees.

You can also plan short or long trips together or just learn more about common interests. Maybe you could learn fly fishing or deep-sea fishing. Maybe you could teach each other how to make ceramic pots, or homemade pasta, or maybe you could take dance classes, or audition for a local theatre production.

Remember how short life is and find ways to just have fun! Spending life loving your family and friends is so worth it!

 

 

Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief

Grief and Happiness Handbook

Grief and Happiness Cards

Grief and Happiness weekly Free Gatherings

[email protected]

Dream Builder Life Coach

Life Master Consultantant

 

 

Filed Under: Change, Creativity, Fear, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Happiness, Joy, Judgement, Loneliness, Love, Memories, Self-Care, Support Tagged With: change, Fear, Forgiveness, Gratitude, grief, happiness, Joy, loneliness, loss, Peace, reclaiming your joy

Dream

June 18, 2026 by Emily Thiroux

Dreams that come while sleeping come in an unlimited variety. They can be from memories, from desires, from sadness, from joy, or from and entirely unknown source. They range from terrifying to incredible happiness. While they can affect our lives in some ways, the more powerful dreams that we have come from while we are awake.

In the daylight we can actively dream about whatever we want to. We can create in our mind the life we would love to live, then go on to create that life. I dreamed when I was in college that I would be a writer. I planted that seed when I was in a writing class.  At the time, I didn’t judge that dream, and I didn’t dwell on it, but it remained in my mind occasionally reminding me to write a bit about something.

Ironically, before I did much writing, I was hired to teach a writing class at the community college. I learned much about writing, and about what not to write, by grading endless writing assignments. And I stared writing more myself. I’d dream in my journal about what I would love to do and how I loved to do whatever that was, and it frequently changed. And I loved teaching writing so much that I was hired to teach writing at a university.

One dream came true in an unexpected way. I had a representative of Prentice Hall Publishing drop by my office one day to convince me to order a book he was selling for my class. I told him he didn’t have anything I wanted. Startled, he said “What do you want?” I described to him how I was frequently the only person who was not from a different country or different culture.  All the books he offered were by old, white men. My students needed writing examples from a variety of people. He said “That’s just what we’ve be looking for! Will you write it for us?” I said yes, and my textbook writing career began.

That little seed I’d planted years before had started to grow without me even realizing it. I’ve gone on to write 5 more books after that, taught writing at a university for 30 years, and now I encourage people to write through their grief to bring them comfort and realize happiness.

What dreams have you dreamed that have come true? What dreams are you dreaming about now? Whatever your dreams are, write them in your journal and maybe even tell a friend. The more you focus on a dream, the more likely it is to come true. There is no limit to what to dream about. Just dream.

Dream bigger than you can ever imagine.

 

Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief

Grief and Happiness Handbook

Grief and Happiness Cards

Grief and Happiness weekly Free Gatherings

[email protected]

Dream Builder Life Coach

Life Master Consultantant

Filed Under: Change, Creativity, Grief, journaling, Loss, Self-Care, Support Tagged With: change, grief, grieving, happiness, healthy coping mechanisms, how to deal with grief, reclaiming your joy, self-care, support

Vagueness

June 12, 2026 by Emily Thiroux

We’ve all heard “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but I heard “Whatever happens in vagueness, stays in vagueness,” and that made me think.  Am I living in vagueness?  In early grief I certainly was.

I remember that even though I live on Maui with radiant tropical flowers and spectacular sunsets, everything seemed grey and lifeless. What had been my favorite foods had little taste.  When people talked around me, their words seemed to run together and not related to anything in particular. I sometimes turned the television on just for background noise, and that’s all it was: noise.

After a while, I started realizing that not paying attention to the world and beauty wasn’t serving me, and that I was the only one who could do something about that. I started going on walks, just around the neighborhood.  I made it my goal to discover something I had not seen before every time I went out. I would take time with that. I smelled the fresh fragrances and took pictures on my phone of the vibrant colors.

I also started eating different foods like the tropical fruits at the Farmer’s Market. I played different music genres and found a wide variety of music I enjoyed that I was surprised by. As time passed, I found myself talking to different people than I had known before and contacting old friends too.

As I acclimated to my now solo life, I saw that it was more lovely than I thought it would be.  The color returned as the vagueness floated away. The color came back to my cheeks and I even started smiling. Grief takes time, but with patience, we can move back out into the sunlight.

Are you living in vagueness, or you ready to smell the flowers?

 

Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief

Grief and Happiness Handbook

Grief and Happiness Cards

Grief and Happiness weekly Free Gatherings

[email protected]

Dream Builder Life Coach

Life Master Consultantant

Filed Under: Change, Grief, Self-Care, Support Tagged With: change, grief, grieving, healthy coping mechanisms, how to deal with grief, self-care, support

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