The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations
This podcast focuses on surviving life after a suicide loss, an experience that can be devastating and leave you feeling lost as you try to pick up the pieces of your shattered heart. The host, Melissa Bottorff-Arey, lost her 21-year-old son, Alex, to suicide on August 7, 2016, and brings (& often shares) her insights from her personal journey.
In each episode, Melissa engages in honest and challenging conversations with other survivors of loss, healers, and mental health experts. She also produces shorter solo episodes where she reflects on her own thoughts and experiences thus far. The podcast covers a wide range of relevant topics and addresses difficult questions. Melissa explores all aspects of grief, including trauma, hope, healing, self-care, legacy, and stigma. She believes that we learn to live alongside our grief rather than get ing over it. Actual change comes through authentic, meaningful connections and mindful choices.
For supporters or educators, these conversations provide valuable insights and shine a light on suicide and grief genuinely and unapologetically. Listeners who are grieving a suicide loss can find comfort in the community and hope for a better tomorrow. Melissa aims to help others, like herself, transition from merely surviving to discovering a life filled with meaning and, potentially, even happiness amid the leftover pieces around you.
[Please NOTE: This podcast is for only relational, informational, and entertainment purposes. It candidly and openly discusses sensitive and sometimes activating topics. There will be no in-depth or graphic descriptions of the method, but merely the possible mention of suicide, murder, rape, and the like. Be guided and care for yourself accordingly. Also, Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing on this podcast should be taken in place of, or as, medical/mental health advice or recommendations.]
The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations
Mindsets, Motivation & Monkeys" Pt 3; I'll Get You My Pretty...
Today is MONKEYS DAY, where I'm returning to the rabbit hole to discuss the third (& final) piece in my current series, "Mindset, Motivation & Monkeys."
So now you have your mindset (or at least know what you would like it to be; goals are a first step), you have picked your guidance word of the year, and you have discovered your motivation. So what now?
In this episode, I discuss MONKEYS! Ok, as you may have guessed, not actual monkeys (flying or otherwise) but rather boundaries! (aka - 'not my circus, not my monkeys')
Setting boundaries after loss is much more complicated than before, like everything, right? But for many of us, there are hurdles we can't overcome after the mindset and motivation part, and then we end up feeling stuck. Today, I discuss this at length to give you some actionable ideas that may help.
In this episode, hear me discuss:
- the myth that boundaries are there to stop us
- The next step - how to start
- Recognizing your monkeys - name them
- Defining them
- Enforcing them
- Real grief examples and more...
In the end, we are truly only limited by what we believe, and we have a choice in what we think and choose to believe. Our possibilities for life 'after' loss are only limited by our own mind. Yep, there's a LOT in those two sentences. Read them again. (And I know it's extraordinarily hard, but we can do hard things!)
Some BONUS follow Up READING - just food for thought & for fun:
A Person Without Boundaries ... (a post from The Daily Stoic)
Setting Healthy Grief Boundaries (an easy read about a difficult thing!)
THANK YOU for listening to this episode. It means so much to me!
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My WEBSITE "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" is support central.
PS....The FIRST SESSION of the Legacy Writing Project in 2024 is under way BUT you can get on the wait list for the August 7 group NOW!!
For a way to leave a Legacy of your child - GO HERE
If you, or someone you know, is struggling with suicidal thoughts PLEASE reach out:
CALL 988 OR, you can also TEXT the word "HOME" to 741741 in the USA