Hello and welcome to my podcast, Empowered to Thrive. I'm your host, Corinne Powell. I'm an intuitive guide and I absolutely love helping people to heal from within so that they can create a life that they love, a life that they enjoy.

We weren't meant to just tolerate and get through life. We were meant to thrive and enjoy the life we're living. Of course, we will have seasons and moments that are difficult and challenging.

And the beauty of it is that we can be supported in those moments. I am here to be an aid and a guide to support you. And I hope that you will enjoy not only today's episode, but some of the past episodes if you haven't heard them yet.

On this podcast, I talk about all things inner wellness. We also sprinkle in some spirituality and parenting because as a mom to three kids, parenting is a big part of my life. I hope that you enjoy the episode and that there's at least one thing you'll pull from it and start to implement into your own life.

If you want to follow me in other ways, you can find me on Instagram, @corinne_changeradically⁠ or on Facebook Change Radically. Would you do me a favor and share this podcast with your friends if you hear an episode that resonates with you? And would you also go ahead and give me a rating and review my podcast? It would mean so much to me and I would appreciate it. I hope that you enjoy the episode and that we connect.

Last week we talked about grieving and I want to add to what I was sharing. I had mentioned at one point that grief could be compounded by past experiences and I want to share a little bit more about what I mean. So to give you a personal example, about seven years ago, I got pregnant when I wasn't expecting to get pregnant.

I was using a form of birth control that was 99% effective and I was very shocked to get pregnant. When I did, I was already in a place where I knew it would be very difficult to be pregnant again. I had two little kids and was taking care of a third.

So I had three children, two years old and under with me every day and I was overwhelmed to say the least. Getting pregnant again at that point sent me into a very dark time and that experience was compounded for me because of past trauma. You see, when I got pregnant at a moment when I did not think it was the best for me, I said, I already have more than I can handle going on in my life right now.

And my world felt like it was falling apart. Here's the thing, friend. Years previous, when I was a young teenager, even a preteen, my world felt like it was falling apart and I did everything I needed to do to hold it together.

I became a parentified child. I lost all the fun in my life and chose to simply take care of everything that I saw that I could help out with. And I didn't know any other way.

I was just doing what I knew to do. But I lost myself. I had already lost myself, but it was a different level of losing myself.

And I became what everyone else needed and I was not being a support to me. And so, seven years ago, it felt the same sort of way that, oh no, my world is falling apart again and I will do whatever I have to do to hold it all together. And my grief, if you will, was compounded.

The disappointment, the sadness, the feelings of overwhelm were compounded because they weren't just rooted in that experience. It was legitimately overwhelming to get pregnant again and already have three young children I was taking care of. But it was way more overwhelming, way more difficult because I had unresolved trauma from the past that was now showing up in my present day.

I was emotionally flashing back to that time 15, 18 years before. And I bring this up because there may be experiences in your life, whether it's through a grieving season or not, it could be any time, that you may be feeling more emotion than you need to, a compounded sense of emotion. And it may be that you have had past experiences that carry trauma that is not yet resolved for you and it's affecting you in your present day.

Now if you're curious about that, you and I could meet up for a session and we could look more deeply into that. I'm certain if we do that you will have a greater sense, a greater awareness. You will experience an awakening and be able to see things in a light you never did before.

But whether we meet up or not, my encouragement is for you just to consider, are there things that I'm going through right now in my life that I might be actually feeling a more intense level of emotion than I need to? And if I can find resolution and healing for some of my past traumatic experiences, then my present day won't feel so difficult, so painful. And then the other piece that I wanted to bring up is that I mentioned that going through grief and allowing yourself to feel is really important. And here's why.

Because if you allow yourself to feel the very difficult, challenging, uncomfortable emotions that are bound to show up if you're allowing grief to play its natural role, you will not always have to feel so horrible. It's when we suppress, we minimize, we dissociate, we deny what we're feeling, that in the future it shows up again full-fledged in our face. When we walk through experiences and we fully grieve and we allow healing to naturally come to us in time when it can, a little bit along the way and a little bit more and a little bit more, and we have compassion towards ourself in the process, and we allow the loving supports in that are there.

Then we come out the other side, of course, still affected by whatever it is we experienced. Still feeling some of the residual hurt and pain and disappointment, sadness. There's nothing wrong with feeling sadness, but we come out and what it means is later on we're not dealing with unresolved trauma.

We may be dealing with another layer from the trauma, from the painful experience, the heartbreak. Dealing with another layer is a very natural progression, but you're not dealing with something that you haven't yet faced. You're not dealing with something that you tried to push into a closet and shut the door on.

You're just dealing with something that's showing up again because in life we will have to face things at different times. Say there's the anniversary of whatever it is you're grieving. You will naturally perhaps have to face your emotions again on that anniversary date, but it will not feel the same if you have allowed grief to run its course.

And we can't put a timetable on grief, and I know people say that often, but it's really true. But if you're allowing yourself to feel and to be loved, to be supported. Remember I said last week, allowing yourself to feel and yet still choosing the perspective you want to have.

Still choosing to allow the sunshine to hit your face even though you feel the sadness. Choosing not to stay under your covers in your bed all day. Reaching out to a loving friend or another support and saying, hey, I'm stuck right now and I actually want to move.

I actually don't want to stay stuck. Friend, if you don't want to stay stuck, you don't have to stay stuck. There is hope.

Life can feel bright again. I don't know how long it will take, but life can feel bright again for you if you want that. And whether it's me or someone else, I hope that you will reach out for the support that is available to you.

There are those of us who sincerely care. Much love. 

[Ending] We've come to the end. What did you think about what you heard? I hope that there's something you pull from today's episode and start implementing it into your life. Create the change that you want to see, the change that you hear about. You have the opportunity to transform your life and I'm ready to link arms with you and to help and guide you to the life that you want to live.

If you resonated with what you heard today and it touched you, would you share it with your friends? Would you also go ahead and rate my podcast and write a written review? It would mean so much to me. I hope that we'll connect, whether it's for a session or just to connect because I enjoy meeting new people. You can find me on Instagram, @corinne_changeradically, or on Facebook, Change Radically.

You can also always email me, corinne@changeradically.com. If you have thoughts, questions, or anything that you just want to talk about, send me an email. I hope that you have a wonderful week, but no matter what your week is like, in the moments that are quiet, maybe it's when you pillow your head at night or when you're driving in the car or taking a walk, or maybe it's going to be in the midst of the chaos with your children or the craziness of work. I hope that you'll remember how significant you are, that there is meaning and value to your life, and that I, for one, am so glad that you're alive.

Catch you again next week.