Show notes
The holidays can bring grief, loneliness, family pressure, painful traditions, and the fear of facing another “first” without your person. Ready to build your personalized holiday plan with support? Brave Through the Holidays begins Wednesday, October 21, 2026, and includes 12 weeks of support, live sessions, replays, worksheets, and tools through January 31, 2027. Join here: bravewidow.com/holidays Brave Widow Resources Book a call with me to see if Academy is right for you: https://www.bravewidow.com/callFree, Live “Four Seasons of Grief” Training + Quiz: bravewidow.com/liveRebuild a Life You Can Love Again in the Brave Widow Academy (join the waitlist or book a call): https://bravewidow.com/academyCreate Calm from Chaos and Heal Your Heart inside Brave Widow Foundations:👉 bravewidow.com/foundationsJoin the free Brave Widow Community: https://bravewidow.com/free In this episode of The Brave Widow Show, Emily shares five ways widows and widowers can plan ahead and make the holiday season feel lighter, gentler, and more manageable. You do not have to maintain every tradition. You don’t have to make everyone else comfortable. You’re allowed to create a holiday plan that supports your grief and your real capacity. You’ll learn how to plan for:Family expectations and difficult conversationsTraditions you want to keep, change, or releaseGrief triggers like music, decorations, and memoriesLoneliness and isolation on big daysEntering the new year without feeling like you are leaving your person behind You’ll also hear about creating a Plan A, Plan B, and an escape plan for overwhelming situations. Chapters00:00 Why the holidays can feel overwhelming after loss 02:00 Why holiday dread shows up 04:00 Five areas to plan for 05:20 Family expectations and pressure 10:45 Why delayed conflict becomes harder 14:00 Traditions: keep, change, or release 16:45 Planning for grief triggers 18:15 Loneliness, isolation, and support anchors 20:15 Entering the new year without leaving your person behind 23:15 Recap: the five-part holiday plan 24:00 Brave Through the Holidays invitation 25:30 Free Brave Widow community 💬 If this episode helped you, please: Hit Subscribe Leave a quick rating & review – it helps more widows find this supportShare this with a friend who’s facing grief or the holidays without their person If you’re new here, my name is Emily Tanner. I’m the founder of Brave Widow and Brave Widow Academy. I help widows move from barely surviving their loss… to rebuilding a life they can actually love again without feeling like they’re betraying their person. By day (and for 20+ years), I’ve led large teams and complex operations in the corporate world. After my husband Nathan died in 2021, just shy of our 20-year anniversary, I took everything I knew about leadership, systems, and change — and started applying it to grief. Since then, I’ve:Shared my story publicly to make widows feel less alone.Launched the Brave Widow podcast, now with 180+ episodes and listeners around the world.Coached hundreds of widows Built Brave Widow Academy, a 6-month coaching program with a clear framework for moving from deep grief to rebuilding a life you can love again. I don’t teach “just think positive” grief tips. I teach widows how to:Heal their heart.Stop waiting on “time” to fix everything.Take small, brave steps toward a life that feels meaningful again. How I Got Here… 2021: My husband Nathan dies unexpectedly. I’m 4 kids in, overwhelmed, and drowning in paperwork, decisions, and pain. Therapy helps, but I still feel stuck with no roadmap. 2021–2022: I start devouring books, interviewing widows, trying grief groups, and studying coaching — desperate to find something that actually helps me feel different. 2022: I start the Brave Widow podcast, recording episodes while terrified and crying between takes — but determined that no widow should feel as alone as I did. Year 1: I begin coaching widows Year 2: I launch Brave Widow Academy — a structured, 6-month coaching program with a step-by-step path: from deep grief, to stability, to rebuilding. Year 3: Brave Widow has listeners around the world. I’ve personally coached hundreds of widows and spoken with thousands more through consults, lives, emails, and DMs. Today: My work is simple: Help widows stop surviving each day… and start rebuilding a life that makes them genuinely glad to be alive again.