The Joyful Mom Podcast

Send a message to Megan Right now, you cannot buy anything from me. I have nothing to sell you in this moment. So I wanted to talk about investing in yourself and why I believe you need to be investing in your mental health. Truly, your mental well-being is a gift. But it’s also something that if you want to, you can invest in yourself the time, money, and energy to supporting and caring for, so t...

Send a message to Megan Looking inside ourselves and beginning to feel our emotions is one of the most difficult things we can do. We are driven by our emotions. Everything we do is because we feel a certain emotion. As a society we have been taught that emotions are fluffy, emotions are bad, emotions are a sign of weakness. But I believe that emotions are a gift that we have been given to process...

Send a message to Megan I’ve been meaning to do an episode on generational trauma for a while, and I wanted to do it now, with all the discussion around racism and systemic racism. I believe the more we can listen and understand, the more compassion we can have for each other. This is just a small piece of what I’m learning and understand. I’m focusing this mainly on grief, but this understanding...

Send a message to Megan In this episode, Marcy Larson, another grieving mother comes to share her story of loss, and how she’s learning to navigate grief. This is a lifelong journey we all face, and it’s a process. Marcy is so open and vulnerable with how her grief is a part of her every day, and how Andy is a still a very big part of her life. -Marcy’s Story as Andy’s Mom -How grief changes you -...

Send a message to Megan Because it’s May, and Aria died in May- I want to share my story again and a little bit about my journey to become a grief coach. -Very quick version of a very long story -My journey through grief and wanting to help others -As a grief coach, what’s important for me to do Links to any resources: When my daughter Aria died suddenly 4 years ago, I wondered if my life was over...

Send a message to Megan It’s still crazy how suddenly your life can be flipped upside down and everything changed in an instant. Today I want to talk about triggers, death dates, and how to navigate them. Everyone will navigate them differently, but I want to offer some things that have helped me so that these days are not all bad. There’s a quote I heard, never waste a trigger. I love this quote....

Send a message to Megan We all come to grief with our own stories and experiences. As children, we may have had experiences that were painful and intense. These experiences may have taught us, that we need to put up a front, that in order to be cared for we need to be helpless, that in order to receive love we need to be complicit, that is order to not get hurt, we have to criticize others.  The l...

Send a message to Megan Mother's day is right around the corner. I want to hold space for you, if you are a grieving mother with no other children, a grieving mother with other children, a grieving mother who lost her child before they were born. Wherever you are in your grief, this day can be hard. Today I wanted to ask the question what does it mean to be a mother? What does motherhood look...

Send a message to Megan You ever feel like you have finally climbed out of the hole of grief, things are going well, and then bam. You are back at the bottom again? -Megan's story when she felt like she was going backwards -What does going backwards mean to you? -What thoughts are you thinking about going backwards and how do those make you feel? -Grief work is always peeling back layers -You...

Send a message to Megan Today’s topic is about grief comparison. There is so much comparison in our lives, especially in grief. Your grief is different from everyone else. You can’t compare the depth of your grievance to the other person. Comparison serves a purpose in trying to understand from a place of trying to understand. Comparison is like a judgement of who has it worse or who is valid in t...

Send a message to Megan On this episode, I want to talk about how each one of us has to make a personal decision on our own grief journey. How are we going to live in our grief and what choices we’re going to make? You’d think how you’d become a better person after this traumatic experience. Will you be compassionate or have more love for others? But with pain and grief, comes peace and joy, if yo...

Send a message to Megan Episode 39 Show Notes In this episode, Rachel Reichblum shared her story on how she knew grief and her journey with grief. - Rachel's Story - What's your idea of fighting grief, versus allowing grief in or letting go? - What did you feel when your parents died? And how did you begin to find yourself again? - What would you tell someone, if someone wants to help so...

Send a message to Megan Episode 38 Show Notes Today's topic is how we navigate ourselves in the midst of our grief to better understand on how we Complain and Process Emotions. -What is Complaining? - What is Venting? - What is processing emotions and how is it different than complaining and venting? - How does a conversation look like when you are processing you're emotions? Download a...

Send a message to Megan Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami • What is 5,4, 3, 2, 1, Method? •How to be focus despite this chaos? If you like The Cultivated Family Podcast, can you share it with someone who benefits from it as well? Also, if you want to take a moment to review The Cultivated Family Podcast we would be so grateful! You can join me on I...

Send a message to Megan Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami Grief does not give us the right to lash out at others.  It does not give us a free pass on acting in whatever way we want. I know you are in pain. The pain is unbearable many times. But lashing out to others and using your anger to hurt others only hurts you more. I want to ask you this. Do...

Send a message to Megan Episode 35 Show Notes I asked my community for questions on how to support and help grieving children. Some of these are their questions, some are mine! :) -Who is Jana, and who do you help, and how do you help them -How do you respond and support children when they tell strangers they don’t have a sibling because they don’t want to feel sad that they don’t? -How can we tel...

Send a message to Megan Episode 34 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami Justin and I talk about the challenges in marriage. We have been married for 9 years. -the common thought that marriages end after child loss -Our first year after Aria died -different ways of communicating -difficult conversations -Shut down/vs start getting more amped...

Send a message to Megan Episode 33 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami There is huge expectation from society to be done grieving in a few days The beginning of grief it was easier for me to allow grief in and to grieve openly because it was so obvious that I would be grieving. But as time goes on, grief really doesn’t have such a front se...

Send a message to Megan Episode 32 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami -I Clearly remember the things people have said to me in grief.  -Clearly, God knew you could handle it, because I couldn’t. -You are so strong. -God wouldn’t give you more than you could handle. If you like The Cultivated Family Podcast, can you share it with someone w...

Send a message to Megan Episode 31 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami -Who is Lindsay, and how has grief played a role in your life? -What is it like to grieve someone you don’t remember? -You are doing kickboxing for PTSD, can you tell me about that? -On Instagram you said you are working with a somatic therapist, what does that mean? -Y...

Send a message to Megan Episode 30 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami There's nothing wrong with medication Medication suppresses Emotion and Feelings Can You Survive without your Medications? Do you need to rely on Medication?  If you like The Cultivated Family Podcast, can you share it with someone who benefits from it as well? Als...

Send a message to Megan Episode 29 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami Mental Health is not a given- it can be taken away in an instant. The deeper the depth of pain the we feel, the greater the expanse of joy we can feel.  Pain is a part of life, when we allow it to be and learn how to cope with it, we have so much more room for joy Heali...

Send a message to Megan Episode 28 Show Notes - Who is Shelby, and how did you come to know grief? -Your story of the first time giving yourself permission to grieve is powerful. Can you share that story? -How does one go about giving themselves permission to grieve? -I want to read a passage from your book about feeling your feelings(if that is okay?) -There is so much fear in feeling our feeling...

Send a message to Megan Episode 27 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami Grief is hard Grief needs to be fought Grief is evil and horrible Common things people say or think with grief. Need to stay strong, keep busy, keep moving, don’t think I get it.  -it feels painful -it feels foreign -it feels like if you allow yourself to feel you will...

Send a message to Megan Episode 26 Show Notes Sign up for the FREE mini-course "Who Am I?" www.meganhillukka.com/whoami - What 3 emotions do I feel? -Story of in Florida  -Future? -What if your story isn’t over? -Who do you want to be? -How can you mesh grief in your life? -How can you honor your child and remember them, while still fully living this life you have been given? If you like...