Podcasts Health Grief Out Loud Laurel Braitman Learns To Feel Her Feelings - What Looks Like Bravery

Laurel Braitman Learns To Feel Her Feelings - What Looks Like Bravery

Published: April 14, 2023, 9:29 p.m.

b'

When\\xa0her\\xa0father died of cancer, a few days before her 18th\\xa0birthday, Laurel Braitman started running. Running towards the\\xa0academic and professional\\xa0accomplishments her father pushed her to achieve and running away\\xa0from the intense shame and guilt she carried about their last\\xa0conversation. It\\xa0wasn\\u2019t until her 30\\u2019s that Laurel stopped running long enough to face her greatest fear: feeling her feelings. \\xa0

Laurel\\u2019s newest book,\\xa0What Looks Like Bravery: An epic journey through loss to love, chronicles\\xa0her quest\\xa0to\\xa0connect with grief and how it\\xa0led to the biggest adventure of all - opening up\\xa0to love.\\xa0\\xa0

In our conversation we delve into:\\xa0

  • Growing up with her father\\u2019s illness and the threat of him dying\\xa0

  • Running from guilt & shame in grief\\xa0

  • Overachieving as a coping mechanism\\xa0

  • Wanting to be a \\u201cgeriatric kid\\u201d at Josie\\u2019s Place, a peer grief support program for children & families\\xa0\\xa0

  • What Laurel learned about grief from being a volunteer facilitator in that program\\xa0

  • Learning a new way of being in the world\\xa0& staying\\xa0open\\xa0to love\\xa0

  • Having a \\u201ccosmic do-over" in helping her mom at the end of her life\\xa0

  • The co-existence of love and sadness
'