Grief fog, emotional whiplash, and nervous system protection

why “I was okay… and then I wasn’t” is normal

One of the most unsettling parts of grief isn’t the pain.

It’s the sudden shifts.

You wake up and feel almost steady. You answer an email. You make a plan. For a moment, life feels manageable.

And then — without warning — the floor drops out.

Your chest tightens. Tears come fast. Everything feels heavy and unreal again.

The swing is so abrupt it can make you wonder:

Was that calm fake?
Am I going backward?
Why can’t I stay in one place emotionally?

What you’re experiencing is not instability.

It’s protection.

Grief fog is not confusion — it’s a buffering system

Grief fog often feels like:

• mental slowness

• difficulty concentrating

• feeling detached or distant

• trouble tracking conversations

• a sense of unreality

This can be frightening, especially if you’ve always been clear-minded or high-functioning.

But grief fog isn’t your brain failing.

It’s your nervous system reducing input when the emotional load is too high.

When loss overwhelms the system:

• attention narrows

• sensory detail softens

• emotional distance increases

This is the brain saying,
We cannot take all of this in at once.

Fog is not avoidance.
It’s mercy.

Why calm can appear suddenly — and disappear just as fast

Many widows feel ashamed when moments of calm appear.

They wonder if it means:

• they’re “doing grief wrong”

• they’re forgetting

• they’re minimizing the loss

But calm doesn’t mean grief is gone.

It means a different part of the brain has come back online.

Grief involves rapid switching between brain systems:

• attachment and threat networks activate during pain

• the prefrontal cortex (reasoning, grounding) re-engages during calm

These shifts can happen quickly — sometimes within minutes.

So the experience of:
“I was okay… and then I wasn’t”

is not regression.

It’s the nervous system cycling between states.

This back-and-forth is how the brain prevents overwhelm.

Emotional whiplash is common — especially in early grief

In widowhood, emotional whiplash can feel extreme because every area of life has been touched by the loss.

Home.
Identity.
Future.
Security.
Belonging.

When everything is connected to the same absence, the system doesn’t get clear breaks.

So the brain alternates:

• immersion in grief

• temporary reprieve

Again and again.

This oscillation is known in grief science as dual-process coping — the natural movement between:

• loss-oriented states (pain, yearning, tears)

• restorative states (neutral focus, small moments of functioning)

You are not supposed to stay in one state.

You are supposed to move.

Why fog often lifts before the sadness does

Many widows notice something strange:

• the fog clears

• thinking sharpens

• orientation returns

But the sadness remains.

This can feel confusing.

But it makes sense physiologically.

As the stress response settles:

• oxygen and carbon dioxide balance improves

• muscle tension decreases

• the brain regains clarity

Emotion lingers longer than confusion.

So when you feel clearer but still sad, nothing has gone wrong.

Your body simply completed one part of the stress cycle.

Gentle ways to work with fog and whiplash

You don’t need to fight these states.

You can support them.

• Name what’s happening
  “This is fog.” “This is a shift.” Naming reduces fear.

• Lower expectations during fog
  This is not the time for decisions or deep conversations.

• Orient gently when clarity returns
  Notice where you are. What feels solid. Let yourself re-enter slowly.

• Trust the rhythm
  Calm does not mean forgetting. Pain does not mean failure.

No forcing.
No fixing.

Just cooperation.

What your nervous system is really doing

When grief swings between fog, pain, and brief calm, your body is not betraying you.

It’s pacing the loss.

It’s protecting you from carrying the full weight all at once.

It’s keeping you alive inside a world that no longer matches the one you knew.

A sentence to return to when the shifts feel scary

The movement between fog, pain, and calm is not instability — it is the nervous system protecting you from overwhelm as you grieve.

You are not broken because you change throughout the day.

You are surviving something that changed everything.

Closing the series

Grief is not one feeling.
It is a process moving through a body.

Waves rise and settle.
Tears release pressure.
Fog buffers what’s too much.
Calm returns — not as closure, but as breath.

None of this means the loss mattered less.

It means your body is doing what it was designed to do:
carry love, survive rupture, and bring you back to yourself — again and again.

Why crying helps the body release grief and why holding it in makes it harder

For many widows, crying feels dangerous.

Not emotionally — physically.

There’s a fear that once tears start, something will break open that can’t be contained. That the body will spiral. That the wave will grow instead of pass.

So many widows learn to do this instead:

• swallow hard

• tighten the jaw

• distract

• hold their breath

• wait it out

It looks like strength.

But inside the body, something else is happening.

Crying is not a loss of control — it’s a nervous system response

Emotional crying is not the same as panic or emotional collapse.

It’s a biological response that involves multiple systems working together:

• emotion processing

• breath

• facial muscles

• tear glands

• autonomic nervous system regulation

When grief rises, the sympathetic nervous system activates — heart rate increases, muscles tighten, breath shortens.

Crying often appears near the peak of that activation.

Not as a failure — but as a signal that the body has reached its limit and is beginning to release.

What research shows about crying and time

Studies on emotional crying consistently show:

• most crying episodes last 5–20 minutes

• intense crying rarely sustains beyond 30 minutes unless re-triggered

• after crying, many people report:

  • calmer breathing

  • reduced tension

  • emotional softening

  • a sense of release

This doesn’t mean people feel “better.”

It means the stress response has begun to complete its cycle.

The grief remains.
The intensity shifts.

Why holding back tears often prolongs distress

Suppressing tears doesn’t stop the wave.

It interrupts the body’s attempt to regulate.

When tears are held back:

• muscle tension stays high

• breath remains shallow

• stress hormones linger longer

• emotional pressure builds internally

This is why widows often say:
“I didn’t cry — but I felt worse afterward.”

The wave had nowhere to go.

Crying isn’t what overwhelms the body.
Unreleased activation does.

The moment tears come is often the turning point

Many widows notice a pattern they’ve never been told to trust:

• intensity builds

• pressure peaks

• tears come

• breath loosens

• fog begins to thin

Crying doesn’t end grief.

But it often marks the crest of the wave — the point where the nervous system begins to downshift.

The storm hasn’t passed.
But the worst of the wind has moved through.

When crying feels frightening or out of control

Some widows experience crying that feels panicky, breathless, or destabilizing.

This usually happens when:

• grief is layered with trauma

• the body is already exhausted

• the nervous system has been in high alert for too long

• tears are mixed with fear of the tears

In these moments, crying isn’t the problem.

The fear around the crying is.

Supporting the body — rather than stopping the tears — is what helps.

Gentle ways to support crying without forcing it

This is not about “letting it all out.”

It’s about staying with the body while it releases.

You might try:

• placing a hand on your chest or stomach

• allowing your breath to lengthen naturally after a sob

• sitting or lying down so the body doesn’t have to hold itself up

• letting your face soften instead of clenching

Nothing dramatic.
Nothing performative.

Just support.

What crying is actually saying

Crying is not saying:
“I can’t handle this.”

It’s saying:

• This matters.

• This hurts.

• I need release.

Tears are not regression.
They are communication.

They are the body speaking when words are insufficient.

A sentence to hold when tears come

Crying often marks the peak of a grief wave, and allowing it can help the nervous system begin to settle rather than prolong distress.

You are not unraveling when you cry.
You are releasing what your body can no longer carry silently.

Coming next

In the next post, we’ll talk about grief fog, sudden calm, and emotional whiplash — and why going from “I’m okay” to “this is unbearable” and back again is not instability, but protection.

Because once widows understand that, they stop judging themselves for surviving.

Want to learn more and find some practical helps? You can purchase The Impact of Grief Ebook

This article explains why crying during grief can help the nervous system release stress rather than make grief worse. It explores emotional crying, stress hormones, and parasympathetic regulation in widowhood, showing how tears often mark the peak of a grief wave and help the body settle. This science-informed grief education helps widows understand their tears, reduce fear around crying, and trust their body’s natural responses to loss.

How long grief waves last and why they feel endless when you're in them

One of the most fear-inducing parts of grief isn’t the pain itself.

It’s the fear that it won’t stop.

A wave hits and your body tightens. Your breath shortens. Your chest aches. Tears come fast or not at all. Thinking narrows until everything feels urgent and unbearable.

And somewhere inside, a quiet panic forms:

What if this never settles?

That fear makes grief harder than it needs to be.

So let’s talk honestly — and accurately — about what’s happening inside the body when a grief wave hits.

Acute grief waves have a biological time course

When grief surges, the body enters an acute stress response.

This involves:

• activation of the sympathetic nervous system

• release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol

• narrowing of attention and heightened emotional intensity

This state feels all-consuming — but it is not infinite.

Across stress-response and affective neuroscience research, there is a consistent finding:

The body cannot maintain peak physiological arousal indefinitely.

In most people:

• acute emotional surges peak and begin to resolve within about 10–30 minutes

• even very intense waves usually soften within 20–45 minutes

• longer episodes often involve re-triggering, not a single uninterrupted wave

This doesn’t mean the sadness disappears.
It means the intensity begins to shift.

The wave moves.

Why grief feels endless while it’s happening

If grief waves are time-limited, why do they feel infinite?

Because during high emotional arousal, the brain’s sense of time changes.

When the stress response is active:

• the prefrontal cortex (reasoning, time awareness) goes partially offline

• the brain shifts into threat-based processing

• the present moment expands and stretches

This is why:

• five minutes can feel like an hour

• you lose track of time while crying

• you feel trapped inside the moment

This isn’t imagination or exaggeration.
It’s how the brain works under stress.

So when a widow says, “It felt like it would never end,” she’s telling the truth — about the experience, not the biology.

Crying often marks the crest of the wave

Many people worry that crying is what keeps a grief wave going.

In reality, emotional crying often happens near the peak of the stress response.

Studies on crying show that:

• most crying episodes last 5–20 minutes

• crying can activate parasympathetic (calming) pathways

• after crying, many people report some degree of relief or settling

Crying doesn’t end grief.
But it often helps the body complete a stress cycle.

Tears are not the wave getting worse.
They are often the wave turning.

Why waves repeat throughout the day

Grief rarely comes as one long, steady experience.

Instead, it moves in cycles.

This is explained by what grief researchers call dual-process coping — the natural oscillation between:

• loss-oriented states (pain, yearning, tears)

• restorative states (neutral focus, functioning, brief calm)

Your brain cannot stay fully immersed in loss all day.

So it moves you in and out.

In early widowhood, this can happen:

• multiple times an hour

• dozens of times a day

This isn’t emotional instability.
It’s neurobiological protection.

The body is dosing the pain.

When waves last longer — what that usually means

Sometimes grief waves feel longer, heavier, or harder to come out of.

This usually isn’t because the grief itself is “stronger.”

Common reasons include:

• exhaustion or sleep deprivation

• hunger or dehydration

• cumulative stress

• repeated memory activation or rumination

• lack of any settling input (rest, support, grounding)

In these cases, waves may:

• stack back-to-back

• feel like one long surge

• take longer to soften

This is nervous system overload, not failure.

And it’s addressable.

Gentle practices that can help a wave move through

Nothing here is about stopping grief.
These practices simply help the body do what it already knows how to do: settle after a surge.

You don’t need to do all of these.
Even one is enough.

• Name the wave
  Quietly saying, “This is a wave,” can reduce panic and help the body stay with the experience.

• Support the breath without forcing it
  Let your breath lengthen naturally. Even placing a hand on your chest can signal safety.

• Reduce stimulation
  Lower lights. Sit or lie down. Fewer inputs help the nervous system exit high alert.

• Allow the tears
  If they come, let them come. Resisting often prolongs distress.

• Orient gently when the fog lifts
  Notice where you are. What you can see. What feels solid. This helps the brain re-anchor.

These are not fixes.
They are permissions.

A sentence to return to mid-wave

Most grief waves rise and begin to settle within minutes, even when the pain feels endless — because the nervous system is designed to crest and fall, not stay in peak distress.

You are not failing because it hurts this much.
You are surviving something that hurts this much.

Coming next

In the next post, we’ll look closely at why crying helps instead of harms, what’s happening in the nervous system during tears, and how to stop fearing the moment emotion breaks through.

Because understanding that changes everything for widows who’ve learned to hold it all in.

Why grief can feel like a storm and what your body is actually telling you.

Grief rarely arrives as something gentle.

It comes like weather — sudden, disorienting, and powerful enough to change the landscape of your inner world without asking permission.

One moment you are functioning.
The next, your chest tightens, your breath shortens, your thoughts scatter, and something inside you braces as if danger has entered the room.

This is why grief so often feels like a storm.

Not because you are dramatic.
Not because you are unstable.
But because your body is responding to loss exactly the way it is designed to respond to threat.

A sudden loss creates a pressure shift inside the body

In a physical storm, the air pressure changes before the rain ever falls. The body senses it first.

Grief works the same way.

When someone you love is suddenly absent, your nervous system does not interpret that as “sad news.” It interprets it as a rupture in safety and attachment.

So the body responds:

• Heart rate increases

• Breathing becomes shallow or tight

• Muscles brace

• Thinking narrows

• Emotions surge quickly and intensely

This is not emotional weakness.
It is the acute stress response activating to protect you.

Your body is trying to survive a world that no longer makes sense.

Grief moves in waves because the body cannot hold everything at once

One of the most confusing parts of grief is how it comes and goes.

You may feel relatively okay one moment — and then suddenly overwhelmed the next. The shift can be fast enough to make you wonder if something is wrong with you.

What’s actually happening is this:

The nervous system cannot stay at peak intensity indefinitely.

When grief surges, the body enters a high-alert state. Stress hormones rise. Attention narrows. Emotion intensifies.

But that state is not sustainable.

So the body does what it is designed to do:
it crests — and then begins to settle.

Within a single day, grief often moves in waves:

• rising suddenly

• peaking intensely

• then easing enough for breath, clarity, or orientation to return

The loss does not disappear.
But the wave passes.

This cycling is not instability.
It is protection.

Crying is often part of the release, not the problem

Many people fear the moment tears arrive.

“If I start crying, I won’t stop.”
“If I let this out, I’ll fall apart.”

But emotional crying is not usually what prolongs a grief wave. In many cases, it signals that the body has reached the crest of the stress response.

Crying activates calming pathways in the nervous system. It can help shift the body out of high alert and toward settling.

The tears do not mean the storm is getting worse.
They often mean pressure is being released.

The fog is not failure — it’s protection

Alongside the waves, many people experience fog.

Thinking feels slow.
Words don’t land.
The world feels distant or unreal.

This fog is not confusion or denial.

When the nervous system is overloaded, clarity is often the first thing to go. Narrowing awareness helps protect the brain from taking in more than it can handle.

As the wave settles, many people notice:

• the fog thinning

• orientation returning

• the ability to engage coming back online

This does not mean the grief is gone.
It means the body found its way back to you again.

What your body is actually saying

When grief feels like a storm, your body is not saying,
“Something is wrong with you.”

It is saying:

• This loss matters.

• I am trying to keep you safe.

• We cannot carry all of this at once.

The waves, the tears, the fog, the sudden quiet — these are not signs of failure.

They are signs of a nervous system working hard to survive love that was torn away.

A sentence to return to when the wind picks up

Grief moves through the body in waves, and while the loss remains, the nervous system is designed to rise, crest, and settle — even when the storm feels overwhelming.

You don’t have to control the storm.
You don’t have to rush the calm.

You could try saying this out loud as a reminder:

“This wave will move.
My body knows how to come back.”

Telling yourself this often will remind your brain and body of these simple truths and help regulate you, and build trust with your process.

I hope this help!

Sending yo uso much love,

Kimber

Coming next in this series

In the next posts, we’ll slow this down and look more closely at what’s happening inside the body — including:

• how long grief waves typically last and why they feel endless

• why crying often helps complete the stress cycle

• and what to do when waves don’t seem to settle at all

Understanding the body doesn’t take the pain away.
But it does remove the fear — and fear is often what makes grief harder than it already is.

Grief often feels like a storm because it moves through the body in waves. In this post, I explain what happens in the nervous system after the loss of a spouse — including grief surges, emotional fog, crying, and sudden shifts between calm and overwhelm. This grief education is designed specifically for widows who feel confused by their body’s responses and want a science-informed, compassionate understanding of why grief comes and goes. Understanding how grief waves work can reduce fear, normalize physical symptoms of grief, and help widows trust their body during acute grief.

why widows need body-based support | grief impact + natural options

Why widowhood feels so physically hard, and how somatic support can help you carry it

When your husband dies, it isn’t only your heart that breaks.

It’s your whole life that seems to crack open.

Your co-parent.
Your partner in decisions.
Your shared income.
Your witness.
Your future.
Your person who helped you breathe through hard days.

And somehow — impossibly — life keeps moving forward.
Decisions still need to be made.
Questions still get asked.
Systems don’t pause.
And your body is required to keep showing up, even when everything inside has been shattered.

If you’ve ever wondered why widowhood feels so physical — why your body reacts like you’re living in an emergency — there is a reason.

Not a “something is wrong” reason.
A nervous-system that is protecting you reason.

Because grief doesn’t live only in the heart.

It lives in the body that had to survive the loss.

Widowhood Is Grief Under Load

Widowhood isn’t just missing someone.

It’s missing him while still having to:

• make every decision alone

• keep the house running

• carry the parenting weight

• manage money stress

• show up to work

• answer questions you don’t even have words for

• keep going when you don’t feel like you can

So the grief doesn’t “settle.”

It stacks.

And the body responds the way bodies respond when the load is too much for too long.

What Grief Can Feel Like in the Nervous System

During my husband’s cancer journey — including a failed bone marrow transplant — my body learned to brace itself

I lived depleted.

And after he died in 2019, that bracing didn’t dissipate.
The stress didn’t end.
It shifted into a new kind of constant that felt even more heavy laden.

I’ve known:

• uncontrollable hyperventilating

• panic that rises out of nowhere

• night sweats

• sleep that won’t come — or won’t stay

• a nervous system that never fully powers down

If you’ve lived anything like this, I want you to hear this clearly:

This isn’t you being dramatic.
This isn’t you being “too sensitive.”
This isn’t a lack of faith.

This is your body carrying what love and loss demanded.

Bereavement research shows that grief can affect multiple systems at once — stress regulation, immune and inflammatory pathways, sleep cycles, cognition, and autonomic nervous system rhythms (fight/flight and rest/digest).
In other words: grief shows up in the body because you’re human, not because you’re broken.

Why Words Don’t Help — and “Just Relax” Feels Cruel

Some advice sounds harmless until you’re the one living it.

“Try to relax.”
“You just need to sleep.”
“Choose joy.”

But widowhood is a major life rupture.

And your nervous system isn’t malfunctioning — it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do when safety is disrupted and responsibility is relentless.

What widows need isn’t pressure to feel better, or to perform.

It’s support to feel grounded so we can keep moving on one step at a time.

how your sense of smell can help When Grief Is in the Body

This is where gentle sensory support — especially scent — becomes something more than “nice.”

A 2025 review published in Plants and available through PubMed Central describes aromatherapy and essential oils as complementary approaches that may support wellbeing related to stress, sleep, mood, and fatigue.

Here’s the part that matters for widows:

Inhaled aromatic compounds interact with the olfactory system, which is directly connected to brain regions involved in emotion, memory, and stress regulation — the same regions grief impacts most deeply.

This is why scent can feel immediate.
Why it bypasses logic.
Why it lands in the body before words do.

This isn’t about erasing grief.

It’s about giving your body a cue of steadiness inside the grief.

A few minutes of an encouraging or grounding scent paired with breath can become a sensory anchor — something your body recognizes as:

Right now, I can breathe.

Not because life feels normal again, or you have temporarily forgotten your pain.
But because you are being supported inside of your new reality.

Somatic Support: Helping the Body Carry What the Heart Is Carrying

Grief is not only something we think about. Or that happens to us.

It’s something we hold.

That’s why body-based practices are often kinder than mindset shifts.
They don’t demand positivity.
They don’t rush acceptance. They see what has happened and recognize it’s impact.

They offer the nervous system a different experience.

Try This When the Wave Hits

The Long Exhale Reset

• Put both feet on the floor

• One hand on your chest, one on your belly

• Inhale through the nose for 4

• Exhale slowly for 6–8

• Repeat 6 times

If you want, pair it with a scent you associate with steadiness.

You’re not denying grief.
You’re telling your body it doesn’t have to brace quite so hard for the next minute.

Widow-Specific Aromatic Support Rhythms

(Simple. Doable. No pressure.)

These are not prescriptions.
They are rhythms many widows naturally resonate with when the body is wired, exhausted, or overwhelmed.

For Sleep When Your Body Won’t Land

• Oils: Lavender + Cedarwood

• Practice: Long exhales in bed

• Breath prayer:
  Inhale: “God, you are with me.”
  Exhale: “You will never leave.”

For Mornings When Dread Hits First

• Oils: Orange or Grapefruit

• Practice: Open curtains, sip warm water, breathe before screens

• Anchor phrase: “I am here. God is here.”

For Decision-Making When Panic Rises

• Oils: Bergamot or Vetiver

• Practice: Box breathing (4-4-4-4) before the call, errand, or appointment

For Grounding When You Feel Unreal or Unsteady

• Oils: Frankincense or Vetiver

• Practice: Press feet into the floor. Name 5 things you can see.

• Ask gently: What is one next right thing?

Writing + breathing: How Widows Process Without Being Overwhelmed

This pairing matters more than most people realize.

Writing helps the brain integrate experience — giving grief somewhere to go instead of spinning endlessly inside the body.

When you add the benefits of essential oils, you give your nervous system a cue of safety + emotional support while you write.

That combination often makes it possible to stay present without getting swallowed.

The Gratefuls Practice

Use a comforting essential oil while you write.

12 small gratefuls (last 24 hours):

• hot water in the shower

• a text that didn’t demand anything

• a moment your shoulders dropped

• a song that felt like company

• a meal you didn’t have to think too hard about

3 large gratefuls:

• God’s presence

• Survival through an unwanted season

• A life that still holds meaning, even with pain

This doesn’t deny grief.

It widens the nervous system’s capacity to hold more than one truth at once.

Why I Personally Believe in This Support

I don’t share this as theory.

I share it because my body reached places words could not express.

Essential oils didn’t fix my grief.
They didn’t remove my loss.

But they gave my nervous system something steady to lean into and hold onto when everything else felt unsteady.

They helped me breathe when panic wanted to take over.
Sleep when my body wouldn’t land.
Stay present when the weight felt unbearable.

And over time, that really mattered and made a tremendous difference.

A Gentle Next Step (If You Feel Yourself Here)

If you’re reading this and thinking:

“I don’t need another thing — but I do need support,”

I understand.

I’ve put together some simple options for widows to find and explore using essential oils for nervous-system support.

You will find:

• which oils I personally use and recommend for widows or those grieving

• ways to use them simply (no overwhelm)

• why these matter to me and how I use them

👉 [Explore essential oils for widowhood / grief support here]

A Closing Word for Widows

If your body still feels on edge, it doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It means you loved.
It means you lost.
It means you are still adjusting to the weight of carrying these two things at once.

And there are gentle, natural supports that can help you carry it — breath, body, scent, writing, prayer — small anchors that remind your nervous system:

You are not alone in this.

Research Referenced

• Seiler et al., The Psychobiology of Bereavement — impacts on stress, immune, and autonomic pathways.

• Caballero-Gallardo et al. (2025), Aromatherapy and Essential Oils as Complementary Wellbeing Support, Plants.

Widowhood grief affects more than emotions — it impacts the nervous system, sleep, stress regulation, cognition, and the body itself. Many widows experience physical symptoms of grief such as anxiety, panic, exhaustion, disrupted sleep, and nervous system overload following the loss of a spouse. Research in bereavement psychology and psychobiology shows that prolonged grief and caregiving stress can influence autonomic nervous system rhythms, immune and inflammatory pathways, and overall wellbeing. Gentle, body-based support — including somatic practices, breathwork, journaling, prayer, and sensory tools like essential oils — may help widows support nervous system regulation and carry grief with steadiness. This post offers grief-informed, natural support options for widows seeking holistic, faith-rooted ways to care for their bodies while navigating loss.

7 Goals That Actually Matter for Widows in 2026

Losing your husband is disorienting.
There’s no easing into it. Grief doesn’t arrive gently—it takes you out. It knocks you flat on your face.

You try to get up, but the energy it takes just to stand leaves your legs shaky. The thought of walking forward—of moving into a life shaped by this kind of loss—feels beyond exhausting. Overwhelming in ways you didn’t know were possible.

Over time, you find a rhythm.
You learn how to get through the days. How to function. How to survive.

And for a while, survival feels like enough.

But somewhere along the way, a quieter question starts to surface—one you might not even say out loud:

Is survival really all there is now?

What if God has more for you than just surviving the death of your husband?
What if He honestly has more than just getting you through the day?

What about a life that still holds meaning?
What about purpose that doesn’t feel forced or fake?
What about moments that actually feel life-giving—the kind that settle your body, soften your thoughts, and remind you there is still goodness to be found, even here?

Because losing a spouse doesn’t just break your heart.

It changes how your brain works.
It changes how your body carries stress, fatigue, and emotion.
And it can quietly shift how you experience God, leaving Him feeling distant, muted, or harder to reach than He used to be.

Widowhood takes so much.
And yet… it also asks something new of us.

Not to move on.
Not to rush healing.

But to find a different rhythm—one that goes beyond survival and slowly opens space for life again.

That’s what these seven goals are about.

Not resolutions.
Not pressure.
Just what actually matters for widows stepping into 2026.

7 goals to help a widow move out of survival mode in 2026

1. create a heart space for your grief

Grief needs to be felt and processed to move.

So many widows carry the load internally—processing in their heads, over and over again. Ruminating. Over time, that kind of carrying becomes exhausting.

Making a heart space is about permission.

Permission to pause.
Permission to feel.
Permission to be honest.

This might look like creating a physical Grief Nook—a cozy chair, a journal, a wrap, a few meaningful objects. And time, time to be intentional. Time set aside where grief is allowed to exist without interruption.

Grief moves differently, more freely, when it knows it has a safe place to land and process.
And so do you. Having a physical space designed specifically to hold you well as you try new ways of processing the loss you carry with you — helps you to feel safe, seen, held and free to release.

2. Help your body feel safe

Grief doesn’t only live in the heart—it lives in the body.

After loss, the nervous system often stays on high alert. Sleep changes. Startle responses increase. Rest feels shallow or unreachable.

You can’t think your way out of that. Ruminating won’t resolve this.

Helping your body feel safe again might look like gentle grounding techniques, breath prayers, sensory awareness, or stillness. Small, repeated practices matter more than big efforts.

Science tells us that consistency helps the nervous system relearn safety. But even without knowing the science, most widows feel it when their body finds ways to exhale.

This isn’t about fixing the loss… because we can’t.
It’s about caring for yourself, and reminding yourself you are still safe and held in the midst of the ache.

3. Finding new ways to Sit with Jesus in your grief

Grief changes faith.

Prayer time shifts.
Scripture lands differently.
God can feel quieter—distant.

Many widows carry this unspoken thought:
”I don’t know how to be with God like I used to. I’m just not feeling it.”

God hasn’t changed but our ability to be present, connect, and feel safe in this world has..
This leads us to an invitation.

Sitting with Jesus in your grief and building authentic connection can look and feel very different after an extreme loss. Sometimes it looks like silence. Sometimes brutal honesty. Sometimes it’s a creative process. Often it is by engaging the imagination differently.

Jesus isn’t waiting for you to be “better.”
He’s already here. Right in the midst. He understands + loves you in the most tender way.

He sees you.

4. Practice gratitude without pretending

Gratitude after loss can feel very complicated.

It’s often mistaken for denial or forced positivity—and that’s not what this is about. At all.

This isn’t about slapping a grateful face on a broken heart or convincing yourself things are okay when they’re not.

And yet… there’s something important here.

Consistent gratitude practices are known to support the brain and nervous system, especially after trauma. They don’t erase pain—but they do help the mind notice moments of safety and goodness alongside grief, not instead of it.

That matters.

Because grief keeps the brain on high alert. And gratitude, practiced gently and honestly, can help soften anxiety and bring the nervous system out of constant bracing.

One simple rhythm many widows find supportive looks like this:

• noticing small, everyday moments that don’t hurt

• returning to a few big anchors that have carried you over time

Noticing doesn’t mean celebrating.
It just means allowing your brain to register something neutral or good without arguing with it.

Over time, this kind of practice helps different parts of the brain work together more smoothly. It creates small shifts—less looping, a little more breath, a little more space.

This isn’t about pretending life is okay.
It’s about helping your brain remember that goodness still exists in the middle of grief.

And sometimes, that’s enough for today.

GOAL 4 - Try listing 12 small gratefuls from the last 24 hours — little things you are thankful fo. And list 3 BIG gratefuls over the span of your life. Make a daily practice of this.

5. Move in ways that help grief move

Grief lives in the body.

Unprocessed emotion often shows up as tension, fatigue, pain, illness or restlessness. Thoughts loop. Emotions and experiences get stuck.

And surprisingly, movement doesn’t have to be an intense workout to be effective.

Walking. Stretching. Dancing. A gentle rhythm. Breathing while moving.

Somatic practices help emotions complete their cycle instead of lodging inside the body. Over time, movement can soften anxiety, bring clarity, and help your system release what it’s been holding.

In 2026, let movement be about listening, relaxing + releasing—not pushing.

6. Connection of the heart

Grief isolates in quiet ways.

Not always because people leave—but because it becomes harder to know how to share what’s real. You don’t want to overwhelm anyone. You don’t want to manage their reactions. Sometimes you don’t even know where to start.

Connection doesn’t have to mean a crowd.

It might be one trusted friend.
It might be a small grief group.
It might be intentional conversation where honesty is welcome and fixing or resolving is not the goal.

Grief moves differently when it’s witnessed. When it is held with care and kindness.

This is the heart behind The Widow’s Table Challenge—a six-week invitation into intentional, grief-informed conversation for widows and the friends who want to love them well.

No platitudes.
No pressure.
Just space to speak and be heard.

If you want more information on this sign up for the newsletter below. It will be coming out in January.

7. Letting your love go somewhere again

One of the quieter, less recognized, losses in widowhood is this:
your love suddenly has nowhere to go.

Your encouragement.
Your care.
Your tenderness.

Many widows unconsciously tuck this away, believing it’s safer not to offer too much of themselves. Or believing they don’t have the energy or will to offer it.

But we were created to love others. Love that has nowhere to go doesn’t disappear—it turns inward and grows heavy.

Letting your love go somewhere again doesn’t mean getting into a romantic relationship, or over-giving, or rescuing. It simply means allowing the gift of you, or something you have to offer, to be shared in a way that feels safe and life-giving.

Love is still a part of who you are. What you still carry and still have to offer.
And someone, somewhere, in this broken world needs what God has given you to offer.

Something thoughtful, something small, or big. A kind word, a thoughtful card, a meal…

2026 Goal - make a weekly pattern of giving some love and encouragement from your heart to another.

A word about time - Schedule it, write it down.

Grief has a way of distorting time.

Days blur.
Weeks slip by.
Months pass and you wonder where they went. And change can be hard.

This is where writing things down can be quietly powerful—not to track progress, but to help your brain light up. What fires together, wires together.

Journaling your grief experiences, recording your daily gratefuls, planning your weekly gives, or simply recording small rhythms can help anchor meaning in a season that often feels scattered.

This mattered.
I mattered.
This moment counted.

A gentle invitation

If this resonated, recognize that you’re not behind.
You noticed, you’re paying attention, and you are headed into new areas.

Through my newsletter, I share:

• Grief Nook setup ideas

• Somatic practices for nervous system care

• Journal rhythms that don’t add pressure

• Science-informed grief support

• Details about The Widow’s Table Challenge

No fixing.
No rushing.
Just thoughtful + kind care for yourself in the wake of deep loss.

You are so welcome here. Just as you are.
And you’re welcome at the table.

Widows, do you need help moving beyond survival mode? Here are 7 steps you can make a priority in 2026.

Widowhood impacts the brain, body, faith, and relationships in profound ways that often go unseen. This grief-informed reflection offers widows practical and compassionate guidance for life after the loss of a husband, including nervous system support, somatic grief practices, spiritual connection with Jesus, honest relationships, and community care. Written for widows seeking meaning beyond survival, this article explores holistic grief support, faith after loss, and relational healing through intentional practices and safe connection. Additional resources, including grief journaling, Grief Nook setup, somatic tools, and the Widow’s Table Challenge, are available through ongoing support shared by the author.

When Grief Makes Your World Small: The Healing That Happens When You See Someone Else’s Story

There’s something I don’t think most people understand about grief — especially the kind that comes after losing your person.

It makes your world small.
Tight.
Closed in.

You don’t do it on purpose.
You’re not trying to shut people out.
It just… happens.

Your body is trying to survive.
Your mind is trying to make sense of a life that seemed to break down overnight.
And your spirit is trying to remember how to breathe in a world that suddenly feels unsafe.

So you fold inward.
You get quiet.
You stay in your head.
You live inside this awful ache because that’s the only place that feels real anymore.

But here’s the thing — and this is the part I wish I could sit across from every single widow and share:

There is something deeply healing that happens when you step outside your own story long enough to see someone else’s.

Not with effort.
Not with “I should.”
Not with pretending your grief isn’t heavy.

But with honesty… and a little courage… and the tiniest willingness to look up.

When I was drowning in my own grief — truly drowning — the only thing that helped me keep moving forward was entering into someone else’s story. Sitting with their pain. Seeing their grief truths. Letting God's love move through me even when I felt like I had nothing left.

And it’s wild, honestly… because it shouldn’t make sense.

How can pouring out love when you feel empty bring healing?
How can holding space for someone else while you’re shattered do anything but drain you?

But it doesn’t drain you.
Not when it’s real.
Not when you’re not forcing anything.
Not when it’s done in response to Jesus.

It actually ignites something.

I’ve felt it happen in real time — that quiet spark in my chest, that soft reminder that my story is not done, that God is somehow using my brokenness to breathe life into someone else.

That’s the Holy Spirit.
That’s love in action.
That’s what happens when grief meets compassion.

And there’s real science behind this, which honestly still amazes me.

When we enter someone else’s story with empathy — especially in shared suffering — the brain releases oxytocin. This is the “bonding” hormone. The “you’re safe with me” hormone. The “you’re not alone” signal our bodies desperately need.

It lowers cortisol — that stress hormone that grief sends skyrocketing.
It softens the nervous system.
It opens the heart and you begin to breathe again.

It reminds you that you still have feelings.
Still have love.
Still have the ability to give something meaningful even when you feel emptied out.

And this part is important:

This isn’t bypassing your own grief.
This isn’t minimizing your pain.
This isn’t trying to pretend you’re okay.

It’s the opposite.

It’s God meeting you in the raw center of your sorrow and saying, “Watch what we can do…”

Because when you step into someone else’s story — even for a moment — you’re not abandoning your own.
You’re letting Jesus shine a bit of His love through the cracks that have felt useless or unworthy.

And scripture backs this.
John tells us that perfect love casts out fear — not your strength, not your resilience, not your best attempts to be okay… love.

God’s love through you.
God’s love toward you.
God’s love weaving stories so no one has to sit in the dark alone.

I used to think I needed to “heal first” before I had anything to offer.
But that was a BIG FAT lie — a straight-up lie from the enemy.

The truth is this:
Love doesn’t stop, get bruised, or pause for you to be healed in order to flow through you.
God doesn’t wait for your story to be tidy and neat before He uses it.
And grief doesn’t disqualify you from being someone who brings light into the world.

In fact… your grief might make you more tender, more aware, more present than you ever were before.

You don’t have to feel whole to offer love.
You just have to be willing.

And even that willingness?
He gives that too.

The Sacred Work of Bearing Witness

One of the most powerful things I’ve learned in grief is this:

You don’t have to fix someone to love them.
You just have to witness them.

Bearing witness is holy ground.

It’s looking at someone else’s pain without trying to tidy it.
It’s listening without offering answers.
It’s saying, with your presence, “I see you. You’re not alone in this moment.”

And something surprising happens when you do this — even while you’re grieving yourself:

You remember that your heart still works.
You remember that God is still moving.
You remember that tenderness still lives inside you, even on the days you feel numb.

Bearing witness isn’t about giving out what you don’t have.
It’s about letting your story sit beside someone else’s story and trusting that God will do the weaving.

Because grief convinces us that we’re useless.
That we’re too broken to show up for anyone else.
That our pain disqualifies us from offering comfort.

But the truth?

Grief has trained your heart to recognize suffering.
You see it differently now.
More clearly.
More honestly.
More compassionately.

Your presence carries weight — not because you’ve healed, but because you understand.

And when two hurting hearts sit side by side, Jesus sits with them.
Not to erase the grief, but to breathe life into the space between.

That’s bearing witness.
And it is both a gift to others and a healing balm for you.

5 Practical Ways to Enter Someone Else’s Story Without Overwhelming Yourself

These are gentle, grief-friendly ways to show up without abandoning your own emotional limits.

These are the steps I lived.
The ones that kept me soft when life seemed determined to harden everything.

1. Offer Presence, Not Solutions
   You don’t need answers.
   You don’t need wisdom.
   You don’t need to say the right thing.
   Just offer a moment of presence.
   “I’m here. You don’t have to walk this alone.”
   Presence heals what explanations never will.

2. Let Your Listening Be Slow and Unrushed
   When someone shares their pain, don’t sprint to the ending.
   Sit with them in the middle.
   Slow listening says, “Your story matters. You don’t need to be faster for me.”

3. Share Only From Your Scars, Not Your Open Wounds
   You don’t have to match their pain with your own.
   But a gentle “I understand some of this” offers solidarity instead of comparison.

4. Keep It Small, Simple, and Honest
   Showing up doesn’t have to be big.
   A voice memo.
   A five-minute conversation.
   A text that asks for nothing in return.
   Small acts carry big presence.

5. Let Jesus Fill the Space You Don’t Have Words For
   Whisper, “Jesus, be here.”
   He fills what you cannot.
   He holds what neither of you can carry alone.

Here’s the beauty widows rarely hear:

Showing up for someone else in small, honest, grief-soft ways doesn’t empty you…

It grounds you.
It connects you.
It reminds you that your life still holds purpose.
That your love is still needed.
That God is still moving through your tired, hurting heart.

You are not useless.
You are not too broken.
You still carry something sacred to give — even now.
Especially now.

If You Want to Step Into Another Story With Me

One of the things that surprised me most in grief was how healing it was to enter into stories far beyond my own — especially the stories of widows in Kenya and Tanzania who carry both unimaginable weight and remarkable strength.

Their lives, their resilience, their faith… it changed something in me.
It opened my world back up when grief had made everything so small and tight.

If you’ve ever felt the nudge to step into someone else’s story — gently, slowly, in a way that brings life to both of you — I want you to know there’s room for you inside the work we do with Pamoja Love.

Through our Widow Project, we come alongside widows who are navigating heartbreak, cultural pressure, spiritual resilience, and the daily struggle to keep their families fed and safe.
And every time we stand with them, something holy happens:

Their story touches ours.
Our story touches theirs.
And God moves in the middle.

It’s not charity.
It’s not “helping the needy.”
It’s story joining — grief with grief, strength with strength, hope with hope.

If your heart is longing for a way to feel connected again…
If you want to witness courage that awakens something inside you…
If you want to know that your story still has something sacred to give…

You’re invited to join us.

Whether it’s praying for a widow by name, helping provide food for her children, supporting leadership training, or simply learning more about her world — you are stepping into a place where love, empathy, and healing move both directions.

And maybe… just maybe…
God will use their story to breathe a little life into yours, the same way He did for me.

If you want to learn more, you can visit: Pamoja Love Nonprofit
www.pamoja.love
and explore the Widow Project.

There is room for you here too.
Your grief.
Your tenderness.
Your story.
All welcome.

Ideas for when grief makes your world feel small.

This post explores grief, widowhood, empathy, nervous system healing, Christian faith, and the emotional and physiological impact of bearing witness to someone else’s story. It includes grief science, widow support, oxytocin and cortisol explanation, faith-based grief encouragement, and practical tools for healing. For widows searching for understanding, Christian grief resources, grief community, nervous system support in grief, or how to navigate sorrow with Jesus, this article provides compassionate guidance, trauma-informed wisdom, and spiritual grounding.

The Widow’s Holiday Cry — What She Wishes Everyone Understood

Raw truths widows need to know to get through Christmas.

“I’m trying. I really am. But Christmas hits places inside me I can’t explain. My whole body feels the absence — the silence at the table, the vacant chair, the empty side of the bed, the traditions that now feel like a wound. I want people to know I’m not being dramatic. I’m not avoiding joy. I’m just trying to survive something my heart, my mind, and my nervous system never learned how to carry.”

Christmas after loss is heavy.
Not just emotionally — but in your mind, your nervous system, your routines, and your body.

If this is your first Christmas without your person… or your tenth… the holidays have a way of pressing into the bruise. The world moves into celebration; widows often move into survival mode.

This isn’t weakness.
It’s grief.
It’s love.
It’s biology.
It’s the story you’re carrying.

And there are real truths that can help you get through this season with tenderness, capacity, and compassion for your whole self.

Before we get to those truths, here’s the part widows almost never say — but deeply wish others understood.

What Widows Wish Everyone Understood at Christmas — But Rarely Say Out Loud

“I won’t tell you this because I don’t want to ruin your holidays… but I am barely holding myself together.”

“The decorations, the music, the gatherings — they all carry landmines. I never know which one will break me open.”

“I wish I could explain how exhausting it is to look ‘fine’ when inside, I’m either numb or on the edge.”

“I don’t want pity. I don’t need you to fix anything. I just want to be seen without being pushed.”

“If I’m quieter, it’s not because I don’t care. It’s because my nervous system is overloaded.”

“I’m terrified of being ‘too much’ — too emotional, too fragile, too complicated. So I stay silent.”

“It takes courage to show up to anything this month.”

“I want to be invited, even if I can’t say yes. And I want my no, or avoidance to be okay.”

“I still talk to him in my head. I still imagine what he would say. December brings all of that closer.”

“I’m not choosing sadness over joy — I’m choosing honesty over avoiding”

“Your love helps… but nothing fills the space where he should be.”

“Most days, I’m surviving something invisible — but nearly unbearable. It touches everything.”

“I just need someone who lets me be real. Someone who doesn’t rush me. Someone who understands that this isn’t just a season… it’s a whole-body ache I’m learning to live with.”

These are the truths widows live in — silently, bravely — during the holidays.

And here are the truths you need to know to get through them.

9 Truths Widows Need to Know to Get Through Christmas

1. You’re not “doing the holidays wrong.” Your brain is grieving.

Holiday grief isn’t just emotional — it’s neurological.
Widowhood rewires your threat system, your memory pathways, and your emotional regulation. The sights, smells, and sounds of Christmas can activate the deepest parts of loss.

There is nothing wrong with you.
Your brain is trying to protect you.

2. Overwhelm is your body asking for safety.

That tight chest, the sudden exhaustion, the dizziness in crowded rooms…
This is somatic grief.

Your nervous system is overloaded, not broken.

Small grounding moments help:

• slower, extended exhale

• step outside

• hand on your heart

• unclench your jaw

Your body needs presence, not pressure.

3. You’re allowed to make Christmas smaller this year.

Widowhood changes capacity.

You can choose:

• simple traditions

• quiet mornings

• new plans

• rest over pressure

• “not this year”

Your worth is not measured by how well you perform holiday joy.

4. Loneliness during the holidays is not failure.

Holiday loneliness for widows is not about being alone.
It’s about missing the one person who was your witness, your safe place, your home.

Feeling that ache is not weakness — it’s love with nowhere to land.

5. December uses more emotional energy than any other month.

Widows carry:

• increased cortisol

• impaired sleep

• grief-triggered memories

• decreased capacity for decision-making

• social burnout

Lower your expectations.
Give yourself margin.
Rest is not avoidance — it’s survival.

6. You need a circle of support — even if it feels vulnerable.

Widows hesitate to ask for help.
But connection literally reduces grief’s load on your nervous system.

Ask for:

• someone to sit with you

• someone to check in

• someone to pray

• someone to help with tasks

You’re not meant to carry December alone.

7. Your body remembers anniversaries before your mind does.

If your spouse died in winter, or if the holidays were complicated, your body holds that timeline.

That heaviness you feel early in December?
It’s memory stored in your nervous system.

8. Honoring your person is allowed — and healing.

Pick one meaningful thing:
light a candle, make their favorite food, write their name, tell their story.

This isn’t about moving on.
It’s about continuing love in a new form.

9. You do not have to navigate holiday grief alone.

Most widows feel invisible in December.
That’s why I created the Widows Support Letter — a free, gentle, grief-informed newsletter offering:

• nervous system tools

• somatic practices

• spiritual grounding

• circle of support helps

• grief education

• compassionate guidance

• reminders you’re not walking this alone

It’s support that meets you in the ache — not above it.

If you're facing the holidays without your person, this is your safe place to land.

You don’t need to be strong.
You don’t need to perform.
You don’t need to pretend you’re okay.

You just need to be held — even for a moment — in a world that doesn’t understand how deep this goes.

👉 Sign up for the free Widows Support Letter below:
Real support. Real stories. Real presence. Especially when the holidays are too much.

Christmas is one of the hardest seasons for widows because grief affects the whole body—mind, nervous system, routines, somatic stress patterns, and emotional capacity. Widows often experience holiday triggers, overwhelm, loneliness, sensory overload, and deep nervous system fatigue. This post offers practical support for widows facing Christmas after loss, including somatic grounding tools, emotional regulation strategies, spiritual support, grief education, and ways to create a circle of support. It explains why holiday grief feels heavier, why the body reacts, and what widows truly wish others understood. This article is written for widows looking for real, compassionate guidance and includes an invitation to join a free Widows Support Letter for ongoing grief support. Keywords: widow holiday grief, Christmas without my husband, surviving Christmas as a widow, grief and nervous system, somatic grief support, holiday grief triggers.

4 Ideas for Lymphatic Cleansing

The lymphatic system is like your body’s second circulatory system. It is responsible for the following:

• Detoxification of waste products from the body

• Immunity boosts to keep the body healthy

• Transportation of nutrients throughout the body

It might help if you think of the lymphatic system as your body’s trash collector and disposal system. It pumps lymphatic fluids throughout the body in order to absorb toxins + waste so that it can eliminate them from the body. If your lymphatic system slows down it can quickly clog and cause major problems with major organs and systems within the body.

The lymphatic system plays another very important role by absorbing the fats + vitamins you take in and delivering them where they need to go. When we take all of that into consideration, and we recognize how our physical bodies impact the brain, mind + emotions… Well, you can see why it is vital to do your best to keep it working smoothly.

So, I put together four VERY simple and easy techniques that are gentle + kind to your system. For those of you in the thick of grief I know it is easy to get overstimulated and overwhelmed, so I wanted to keep it super simple.

These are all things I have been using over the last few years, I actually began them prior to Dave’s passing, during his illness. I am here to tell you, no matter what shape you are in, you will feel SO MUCH better implementing these.

Just pick one, after a few days try adding another if you feel up to it.

GUA SHA is a simple technique that you can easily do yourself. There are several youtube tutorials to follow. You will need the following items:

• a GUA SHA stone

• Essential Oil Face Serum w/ Frankincense, Lavender, Myrrh, Helichrysum, Hawaiian Sandalwood, and Rose. (PLEASE, only use certified + pure, 3rd party tested eos, many are adulterated + filled with toxins in the name of “fragrance”)

Here is a Gua Sha Beginners video (click here)

HYDRATE more water, more water, more water. Increase your water to 50% of your weight. HNow does that work - claculate by taking your weight in pounds + drink half of that in ounces of water. Make SURE it is filtered. No plastic bottles. No carbonation. No juice. Just water counts for this one. You can have other drinks but they don’t contribute to your count. And caffeine can actually take away from it.

Drinking water with 1-2 drops of lemon or grapefruit essential oil in it is excellent for detox + your body while at the same time it will really uplift your mood.

• Berkey Water Filters are some of the best around for removing bacteria, pesticides, minerals and metals .

• Lemon essential oil, or grapefruit, are essential to add to your water for a gentle detox.

• Hydro Flask makes my FAVORITE water bottle to use with essential oils. Using a water bottle helps keep the tracking easy. (You want to use metal or glass when using eos.)

DETOX BATH SOAK is oh-so relaxing + calming to the mind it is also an AMAZING way to pump up that lymphatic system.

Hot water will dilate blood vessels, the epsom salt and baking soda draw out the impurities. Essential oils boost your body’s natural ability to purge what it needs to + support your lymphatic system.

• 2 cups Epsom Salt

• 1 cup Baking Soda

• Essential Oil Blend specifically designed to help boost your body’s detox system with Tangerine Peel, Rosemary Leaf, Geranium Flower/Leaf, Juniper Berry, Cilantro Herb essential oils.

  Directions: Fill the tub with hot water. Mix the salt, soda + 6 drops of the essential oil. Blend well. Add to bathwater just before soaking and stir in well. Soak for 30-45 minutes.

  Repeat weekly. Make sure and hydrate extra well after your soak, and the following day.

Now, let’s talk REBOUNDING.

This is SO incredibly good for all the cells in your body. It is gentle on the joints. It totally helps with mood, especially when you pump up some. music.

It stimulates the lymphatic system and moves those nasty toxins right out of your body. This is one of the fastest ways to jiggle + shake ALL those lymph nodes in your body at one time.

I have a jamming playlist I play on my earbuds as I get in the zone. I also pop a couple of peppermint beadlets in advance because there are studies done on the effects of this essential oil and increasde physical performance. PLUS it opens the airways and completely lifts my mood.

You don’t have to jump intensely, just hop on a bounce gently, pick it up a little and then back to gentle. Have fun with it.

I like the ones with handles, and some are foldable for easier storage, like this one that’s available on Amazon: Rebounder

Check out this diagram with all the lymph nodes in the body. Crazy right? I figured seeing them may help you want to do something to help them be tip-top.

Now, go jiggle + jump, hydrate + flush, soak + release, and massage those babies.

Make sure and let me know what you try and how it works. Let me know if you have any questions.

If you are really spurred on to do all you can and you really want to dive in, you can always go for a full-on detox kit. We have a great natural option that steps through the elimination pathways in the proper order so that you get maximum detox results without side effects. When you purchase the kit you will also receive an ebook + gift box from us. You have us to help walk you through it as well. This is something we highly suggest doing two times a year. You’ll be amazed at how clear your skin is, how your energy increases, and mental clarity. BOOM!

You can purchase your all-natural detox solution here: Detox Kit