Facing Grief One Day at a Time and Living Without Fear

In this episode, you'll hear:

What it felt like to lose her parents and how she deals with the grief
How a near-death experience impacted her life for the better
How being a teacher has changed since 1995
Tools she has learned and developed over the years to help her cope with the stressors of life

Elizabeth was born and raised in Arizona with her brother. Her mother was an educator, and her father worked for the newspaper. She tells us she had a great childhood and recalls good memories from that time in her life. However, like many of us, Elizabeth has faced more than her fair share of hard times. Not all of us have a single huge life-defining moment, but rather we face several “normal” challenges throughout our lives.

Health scares, raising children, professional conflicts, divorce, losing our parents.

Through it all, Elizabeth has always found a way to put one foot in front of the other, grow from the pain, and move forward. Today, she joins us to talk to all the people who are doing life and share the tools she has learned and developed over the years that help her through it.

In 2008, Elizabeth had a near-death experience when she survived two pulmonary embolisms. That scare endowed her with a sense of fearlessness when it came to trying things she’d only dreamt of until then and pushed her to pursue her dreams of writing a children's book and trying out stand-up comedy.

In 2015, Elizabeth's mother passed away unexpectedly. She tells us her mother was her best friend, and losing her took an immeasurable toll on Elizabeth and her two sons. Just two months and eight days later, her father passed. Her boys were 6 and 12 at the time, and she felt pressure to keep it together for them. However, through this experience, she learned that she had to feel her feelings in order to move through them. Grief counseling helped her during this period, but even now, all these years later, she tells us that grief never leaves her; it just changes form.

A few years after she lost her parents, Elizabeth went through a divorce that was finalized in 2020. This brought a new version of a feeling she knew well: grief. She compared these different periods of grief to going through a metamorphosis that changed who she was. It can be painful, but when you come out the other side, you have grown.

As a backdrop to all of these experiences, Elizabeth has been an early childhood educator for 28 years. She started teaching in 1995 and tells us she has seen drastic changes in the kids she works with since the advent of social media in the aftermath of the pandemic. Between these changes in children, a lack of appreciation and understanding from parents, and pressure from administrators, being an educator has been getting harder every year.

No matter what your life looks like, grief and strife are inevitable. However, joy and growth are just as ever-present. For Elizabeth, taking one day at a time, remembering tomorrow is a new day, embracing change and fear, using humor, and talking to counselors and peers helps her through it. Start small and find a thing that makes you happy, then try that without fear.

“An adventure takes a first step. Don't be afraid to take that step.”

In this episode, you'll hear:

What it felt like to lose her parents and how she deals with the grief
How a near-death experience impacted her life for the better
How being a teacher has changed since 1995
Tools she has learned and developed over the years to help her cope with the stressors of life

Facing Grief One Day at a Time and Living Without Fear

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