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Join Brave Through the Holidays: bravewidow.com/holidays This 12-week pop-up group includes coaching, worksheets, community support, holiday planning, communication guidance, and vision planning for 2027. The holidays can feel painful, overwhelming, and completely different after losing your spouse. And the second year does not automatically feel easier. 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 The holidays can bring joy, but they can also bring powerful grief triggers for widows and widowers. In this episode, I’m sharing three things people often don’t tell you about experiencing the holidays after the loss of your spouse:No one may come to rescue your holidays.Your nervous system may recognize holiday triggers before you consciously do.The second or third holiday season may feel harder than the first. You are not doing grief wrong if the holidays still feel painful. You are not required to participate in every tradition, attend every gathering, or pretend everything feels normal. You can make decisions in advance. You can create a plan. You can choose what feels supportive, set boundaries, and prepare for the moments that may feel especially difficult. If you want support navigating the holiday season, join us inside Brave Through the Holidays. You’ll receive weekly guidance, worksheets, coaching, replays, and community support through the end of January. Learn more: bravewidow.com/holidaysYou can also join the free Brave Widow community at bravewidow.com/free. Chapters00:00 Why holiday grief can feel overwhelming 02:00 Why avoiding the holidays can make things harder 06:00 Thing 1: No one is coming to rescue your holidays 10:00 You get to decide what your holidays look like 11:30 Thing 2: Your nervous system knows the holiday schedule 14:00 Why holiday triggers can feel so unexpected 15:00 Thing 3: The second and third holidays may feel harder 17:00 Healing does not mean forgetting 19:00 Recap of the three things 20:00 Why join Brave Through the Holidays 23:00 Free Brave Widow community 💬 If this episode helped you, please:* Hit Subscribe* Leave a quick rating & review – it helps more widows find this support* Share 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.