BW 078: A new year brings new opportunities.

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In today's New Year's episode, as we approach the year 2024, a time that once held childhood dreams of flying cars, holograms, and robotic assistants, we reflect on the remarkable contrast between those visions and the reality of today. This introspective moment is particularly poignant for individuals who, like myself, have faced the challenges of widowhood.

Stepping into a new year prompts a dual reflection—a consideration of the past year, 2023, and an examination of our hopes and aspirations for the upcoming 2024. Take a moment to pause and explore the emotions and thoughts that arise when contemplating this transition. For widows, this process may hold unique complexities, as the journey of rebuilding a life after loss is one marked by resilience and transformation.

Pause for a few seconds and allow those emotions to surface. For some, the idea of a new year may be tinged with a sense of sadness or frustration, perhaps perceiving it as another chapter without the presence of a loved one. Others may approach it from a neutral standpoint, acknowledging the passing of time as a factual progression.

Yet, amidst these varied sentiments, there are those among us who find solace in the anticipation of the new year. Some widows may have set specific goals and dreams to pursue, embracing the possibilities that lie ahead with a renewed sense of purpose and determination.

 Quote: 

''It's also important to celebrate milestones and to continue to look forward. ''

''2024 can be An amazing and an awesome year for you and not because you want to put on a planter or on a goal list that, you want to make a 1, 000, 000 dollars or you want to have, 5 houses and drive a Lamborghini and all of those things. But it can be such a powerful year of growth.

Of abundance of achieving what you want, maybe right now, all you can think about is wanting to be out of pain and despair of wanting to be to a point where. You can look back on your past with love and gratitude, and you can start to explore and discover what it is you want for your future. Maybe you don't know, you don't know what your goals and dreams are because you haven't even thought that far ahead.

That's okay. 2024 can be that year for you. ''

  ''Embracing change and new beginnings is so important as you're trying to take those first baby steps into figuring this all out, like who you are as a person, who you want to be. Things that you want to do, what you want your future to look like, just embracing the change and embracing those new beginnings and

 recognizing that this may not be the future that you initially had planned on. This may not even have been what you would have wanted before you lost your person, but you can think of it as an adventure and you don't really know where you're going to end up. Exactly. Even when we think we know where we're going to end up.

 As we know, as widows, we don't know for sure how all that's gonna come together, but you can start to create some excitement and going, you know what, this is an adventure.''

The Brave Widow Community is a place where you can connect with other widows, find hope and healing, and begin to dream again for the future.  Learn more at bravewidow.com.  

Hey guys, I’m Emily Jones

I was widowed at age 37, one month shy of our 20 year wedding anniversary.  Nathan and I have four beautiful children together.  My world was turned completely upside down when I lost him.  With faith, community, and wisdom from others, I’ve been able to find hope, joy, and dream again for the future.  I want to help others do the same, too!

FOLLOW me on SOCIAL:

Twitter | @brave_widow

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Transcript: 

Audio
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Emily: [00:00:00] Hey, hey, and welcome to episode number 78 of the Brave Widow show. Today is our New Year's episode and wow, we are going into 2024. I always thought as a kid, 2024 By that point, we would have flying cars, we would have holograms and robots that do everything for us, and while in some ways, maybe we're headed in that direction, in other ways, it's just amazing where we are in 2024 versus where I thought as a society we would be.

It's crazy to think that we are heading into a new year. This is the perfect time, though, to pause and take time to reflect on the type of year that you had in 2023 and what it is that you want for yourself and for your future in 2024. Now, I want you to [00:01:00] take a moment to pause and to think about what thoughts and what feelings come up for you when I say we're heading into a new year.

And go ahead, I'm going to pause for just a few seconds. Now, for some of you, as you think about that saying, we're headed into a new year, it's the start of another new year, you might really be saddened by that. You might be frustrated, you might think, Ugh, another year without my purse, and it's going to be another horrible, worst year of my life ever.

For some of you, you may be Coming from a neutral place, and you might think, okay, it's an, it's another year. It's just a fact it's not positive or negative necessarily. I'm, I'm moving forward. [00:02:00] We're going to have another year here ahead of us. And for some of you, you may be excited for some of you. You may have some things that you're looking forward to in the new year.

You might have some goals that you're wanting to achieve and some dreams that you're chasing, and you might just really be excited about it. Now, when I was first widowed. And really for quite a while after I was widowed, I didn't really know how it was possible to have joy or to be excited about things in the future.

Like, I knew it was possible because I saw other widows. Doing it. I saw other widows that were living life and accomplishing some really cool things, but I didn't know how to get from where I was to where they were. I didn't know how to bridge that gap of like, well, what secret do they know? How are they really that excited about life?

How do they have that much joy? How do [00:03:00] they have that much hope for the future? When I just feel sad. And I just feel like I can't even have one good thing happen to me without this wave of sadness coming over me and I can't stop the thoughts of, well, what does it matter? My person isn't here. Well, what's the point?

My person isn't here. And it really took a lot of soul searching and what felt like a lot of work and clarity needed to be able to bridge that gap and to truly be able to say, honestly, now that I do experience a life full of joy, I am excited again about things for the future and it doesn't diminish.

What I had and what I wanted in my life prior to widowhood, but it enhances my ability to appreciate and to persevere for [00:04:00] the things that I want for my life. You have the option to choose. What kind of year 2024 is going to be for you now? Some of you might be rolling your eyes and sighing and thinking that I'm crazy and that's okay.

You can think that perfectly fine. And for some of you that might instill some hope, like, oh, I get to choose and life isn't perfect. We know this, so we can envision things we can aim for things we can work towards things and that doesn't mean that we have them overnight. But I want to share a few things with you.

That's very personal about 2023 for me and about how this journey. Over 2023 has been and how I can have so much joy and hope and excitement about my future and how that's even really been [00:05:00] possible for me and how my goal is to help other widows do the same thing.

Now, as many of, you know, I'm a planner. I love to plan things. I love notebooks. I love the idea of journaling. Notice I said the idea of journaling and I love the idea of planners because that all makes me feel like super organized and like I have my life together and I know what to prepare for. I'm not always the best at actually journaling and that's going to be my goal for 2024 because, well, for many reasons, but because I like to see my progression and where I was.

Over the years versus where I am now to help remember how far I've come, but I share that with you because I want to show you. And if you're watching this on on video or on YouTube, this little card came with a planner that I had purchased and it's called my word of the year. And my word of the year for 2023 [00:06:00] was intention and really what that meant was I wanted to be more intentional.

About what my life would look like about how I would structure things. I put together a schedule for what I wanted my work week to look like. I put together ideas and desires for what I wanted so many different aspects of my life to look like. And so I had a really hard time coming up with what my word was going to be and what all that would represent.

But to me, it was. The mindset of slowing down from all the chaos and all the noise and all of the surviving and healing and stumbling and figuring this stuff out and to be more intentionable intentional about what I was working towards. So I want to share with you. This [00:07:00] potted planter and it'll make way more sense if you're watching this instead of listening, but I'll do my best to describe it.

So, as many of, you know, I took a life coach certification program, um, over this past year. It actually started. The year prior and we graduated around the April May time frame where I took a trip down to Florida and I got to graduate with other life coaches and it was a big deal. Okay, this was like, 9 to 12 hours every week we were in class or coaching other people or working on our business and.

Really being very active in our coaching cohort. We had learned so much. We have an amazing leader, Dr. Betsy Guerra, and it was just a life changing experience. So while I was there at their graduation on one of the days that we were there, we did this activity and I'm going to [00:08:00] explain it poorly because I don't know the best way to truly explain it to help you understand what all.

Meaning it held, but I'll do my best, so. We had someone come in and lead this session. And if you're listening, I'm going to hold up this little potted, this little planter that it's like a planter that you would get, you know, at any store that sells planters, we're putting plants in and we kind of, we, we had this.

Activity where we were going to put our future dreams and our goals and we were going to mod podge them essentially around the outside of the planter. We also put some things deep down inside the planter, so maybe some more personal things there and. It was a whole exercise and activity around finding pictures and words that meant something to us.

And with each [00:09:00] step of the process, there was a different meaning for that. But we filled the planter with dirt. We actually took some papers and planted that in the dirt to plant our dreams. And then we added rocks and succulents. And of course, I could not bring all of that with me on the plane back home.

So the planter doesn't have any plants in it. But that's not the point. The point is in what I've been able to achieve based on what I set out, what my goals were early on in 2023 versus where I am today. And that's part of what I want to share with you and part of my roadmap for getting there. So the first thing that you may notice here on my planter is the word purpose and a picture of my family, um, from Christmas time.

And. For me, that was just about focusing on making my family a priority in being [00:10:00] purposeful and how I cultivated relationships with my kids and my in laws, who I'm very close with and other members of my family. And I definitely feel like I have been able to achieve that goal and that vision of. Being purposeful in relationships and making my family, my purpose, and my priority for what I do.

There's also a phrase here at the bottom that says, go for the bold. And With Brave Widow, I've just gone all in, like I've overcome so much imposter syndrome and figuring out new technology and figuring out podcast hosting and coaching and all of the things that go along with that. I just went for it and did it in a way that was bold and brave.

You notice some pictures that are on here with the words beautiful and it's things like [00:11:00] a chandelier and a pool and there will be another picture of a house here. I'll turn it with the phrase masters of our craft and it's just a beautiful home. And 1 of my goals has been to build a. New, beautiful, custom made home that perfectly suits my family and I, and I am proud to share that my, after many, many months and hours of planning and debating and watching videos and reading through books, I have submitted 150 pages of notes and pictures to an architect who is working on those plans and I bought some land to build a house on.

So that goal and that dream came to fruition and I'm super excited and, uh, curious to see what the process will be for building a house. I've never done that before. All [00:12:00] right, I have another picture of some folks flying on a plane and I put a very luxurious first class picture on here because I wanted to feel like I was traveling in luxury and I, wanted to, one of my goals was to travel internationally at least once a year.

Uh, I also have this phrase in here, a girl can always have more diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor and. I'm happy to share that I'm engaged and I have another diamond and, uh, I will be traveling on a plane internationally to Turks and Caicos for our honeymoon. And I am really, really super excited about that.

That is going to feel like such a luxurious vacation and experience. And I want to share with you as well that me sharing these goals and dreams with you. [00:13:00] Isn't to brag. It's not about me. It's not about. Oh, look at me and how good I'm doing how amazing I am accomplishing these things, but rather to show you what is possible, what can happen when you have a dream and a goal, and you intentionally work towards that.

I wasn't. engaged when I put that on here. And I'm going to get to that a little bit more here in a second. I also put a phrase in here. How do you want your clients to feel? Because I wanted to remind myself that at the end of the day with Brave Widow, this is all about you and this is all about your experience.

And this year I've received so much positive feedback. From the members of my membership community, from people who attend live events, about how helpful it was for them, how meaningful it's been, how they've grown personally as [00:14:00] individuals. And that really means more to me than so many other things could.

That really is just incredible to me.

Now, one of the things that you probably can't see real well. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna drop rocks out of my planter here. and show the inside of it to the camera. There's a phrase I buried deep down in the dirt because I was afraid to put it on the outside of my planter, but it says falling in love after losing the love of your life.

Now on the outside of my planter, I did put in this tiny little section, a phrase called a little romance. And it really was around this time that I was just starting to think about dating again, that I was just sort of finalizing whether or not I wanted to get married again, whether or not I wanted to date again, if I was going to date the right person.

And I had dated before and I made lots of [00:15:00] mistakes on the dating app. So, uh, that's something I'm going to be helping other widows with as well. But I really was just on the verge of deciding that I did want to date again and I did want to get married again eventually. Of course, I had all those natural doubts and insecurities like who's going to take on a widow with four kids and this responsibility and that responsibility and all this stuff going on.

Like, that's not for most people. But, Hey, I put on my planter because it was something that I wanted and I buried this down in the dirt because I really wanted to nurture and to grow that idea and that goal. And this was April of 2023, and it is now December of 2023, and I'm engaged to be married in February of 2024 to someone who's so incredible and [00:16:00] amazing that.

I couldn't have dreamed him up on my own and I could share a whole nother podcast about how I really surrendered to God and to the process and to waiting for the right person to come around and to treat this process of, of more as a marathon and a sprint. But my point in sharing all these very personal details with you is because.

I want you, I want you to know what is possible for you. When I put all of this together, I didn't know Robert. I had never talked to him. We never met. We hadn't interacted. I didn't know anything about him. I did not even meet him until almost a couple of months later. But it's incredible to me how much can change and how much can happen when you have goals and you have dreams and you [00:17:00] intentionally and mindfully work towards those.

2024 can be An amazing and an awesome year for you and not because you want to put on a planter or on a goal list that, you know, you want to make a 1, 000, 000 dollars or you want to have, 5 houses and drive a Lamborghini and all of those things. Right? But it can be such a powerful year of growth.

Of abundance of achieving what you want, maybe right now, all you can think about is wanting to be out of pain and despair of wanting to be to a point where. You can look back on your past with love and gratitude, and you can start to explore and discover what it is you want for your future. Maybe you don't know, you don't know what your [00:18:00] goals and dreams are because you haven't even thought that far ahead.

That's okay. 2024 can be that year for you. It's totally possible.

​

Emily Jones: Welcome to The Brave Widow Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Jones. We help young widows heal their heart, find hope, and dream again for the future.

Emily: All right. So I want to share with you some of the things that really helped me in making 2023 a powerful year for me. And let me say all of my goals and all of the things that I look back on this year with, with gratitude. Are on this planter.

There are so many more things that I've been able to experience and that I've been able to see come to fruition [00:19:00] that maybe I haven't even set as a goal for myself or maybe I had it written down on a piece of paper. But it didn't necessarily make it to the planter whenever I did that activity.

So know that what I'm sharing with you is such a small, small piece of what is possible for you and for the journey and for the growth that lies ahead for you. So let me share some of the things that have really helped me this year and have helped other widows that I work with as well. The first thing that I want to share is a verse from Proverbs 29, 18, which says where there is no vision, the people perish.

So I want to share this verse. With you from Proverbs 29, 18, which says where there is no vision, the people perish, it's so important to set a vision for yourself or to have hope for the future, not only from a goal perspective, from [00:20:00] a mindset perspective, but from a physical perspective as well, someone who lives in a state of hopelessness of despair of listlessness of what's the point of all of this.

Those types of That state of being over time will manifest physically in your body. And it's how some people don't survive losing their spouse. They literally die of broken heart syndrome because they feel that there's no hope. They feel that there's no point. They feel like, well, why even try to go on?

So it's important to have hope and it's important to start to establish a vision and listen. Not asking you to set 25 goals for your future. You may be at a point where I was, which is I don't even know how it's possible to want a future. I don't know how it's possible to think that I could set some goals and be excited about [00:21:00] achieving them without feeling awful that my person isn't there.

That's okay. You don't have to know how it's possible to get there. You just have to have the hope that it is possible. There is a way to get there.

So one of the first things that I did that really helped me was starting to bridge that gap of where I was versus where I wanted to be was setting the stage for having a comeback year. That's really what it felt like. Like, I was coming in from behind.

I was going to move to a place where I could feel normal. I didn't even necessarily want to feel super excited about life again. Like, I just wanted to feel normal. But I had to set this stage and this playing field essentially to say, okay, I don't know how it's possible to get there. I don't know what I want for my future.

I have no idea. [00:22:00] Do I still want to own land and live out in the country and have all that responsibility? I don't know. Do I want cows and horses and donkeys and all of that? I don't know. Do I still want to Write books. Do I still want to engage in certain hobbies and activities? I have no idea. I felt like I was having to re figure all of that out, but I started with the mindset of deciding that it was going to be possible and I was going to figure out a way.

Of getting across this great chasm like this grand Canyon of a gap between where I was and where I wanted to be felt so incredibly far away. The next thing that I did was really reflect on where I was. So I reflected on the past year and what all had happened. Nathan died in July of 2021 and this was early 2023.

So I had about a year, a year and a [00:23:00] half of reflecting on the past year and really how far I had come. In just getting through survival mode and still working and still taking care of the kids and figuring out a new schedule and cooking for everybody and doing all those things and figuring all that stuff out and thinking about what I felt like went well with that past year, what I was proud of for accomplishing for myself and starting to think about what the future could look like.

I then did a life inventory, and some people call this a life wheel, and if you Google life wheel, a lot of things will come up for you, but this is also an exercise I took my Brave Widow membership community through, which is evaluating different areas of your life, and essentially rating them on a scale of 1 to 10, and reflecting on each of those areas and saying, okay, why did I rate this?

Let's say I rated finances a [00:24:00] level 6 out of 10 or 7 out of 10. Why did I rate it that way and what would I want it to be? So it was the same thing for things like fitness and physical health, for emotional health, for relationships, for work and career. Just several different categories. I think we ended up with 8 or 9 categories of things that we rated and we wrote down why we rated it that way and what it would look like for us to rate that a 10.

Now some of these were challenging for me because I'm really not great at self care and wellness and doing routine things like exercise that I know I should do. So some of those really felt like a bigger leap than some of the other ones that I wanted to work on over the course of this year. But I knew it was important for me to take care of my physical body as much as I was taking care of my mental health and also my emotional health as well.[00:25:00]

So I started doing several things that would help take care of me and help make me feel like I was putting myself as a priority again. I really had spent a lot of time supporting the kids, supporting the kids, supporting the kids. Everything had been around them. And my work for such a long time that I was really the last priority.

So for 2023, I really focused a lot on structuring my schedule and structuring things where. I would take myself out on dates by myself. I would go get a massage or a facial. I would take myself to the bookstore by myself and do things I enjoyed by myself. And, yes, there were times it was awkward, sitting in a symphony with an empty chair next to you, being there by yourself, or taking yourself out to eat at a nice restaurant, and Having to tell somebody that you're just one person that's going to be dining there and trying not to feel like everybody's looking at you [00:26:00] Yes, some of those things were awkward and weird when I first started doing them But I got to a point where I was much more comfortable with doing those things alone and feeling so much more Refreshed and centered and focused when I put a priority on those things.

I also took time to discover passions and hobbies, whether it was things that I did before or new things that I was learning how to do or just testing them out to figure out if it's something I would like to do. I felt like it was really important for me to test out some of these new things to help really shape the outline of Who am I as a person?

What are my core interests? What could a future look like for me? Like, I was just really testing the waters to figure out what it was that I felt like I wanted so that my goals and my dreams could become more clear. They can become sharper. worked really [00:27:00] hard to build a support network around me. And this is hard for me because I'm an introvert by nature.

And while I love people, they also exhaust me. I really don't like small talk. I'm terrible at it. I hate meeting new people, but listen, I went to a couple of different conferences. I went to Dave Ramsey's Entree Leadership Conference all by myself with thousands of other business owners. And it was.

Amazing. I met some really amazing people there and I had a blast. I was exhausted at the end of it, but I had a blast and I learned so much and it was incredible experience. I started attending local meetings for different interest groups. I went last week to a leadership conference here in a local city again by myself and it's.

So important that you put yourself out there and that you try to meet new people and you [00:28:00] intentionally focus on who you want to spend your time with and what kinds of relationships that you want to strengthen so that you can build up that support network of people around you. It will help you with loneliness.

It will help you with being able to make decisions on your own and do that more confidently. And it will help you to surround yourself with other people who are future focused, who are growth focused, who want something more out of life than just the mundane.

There were lots of new challenges that I had to overcome, but guess what? Being widowed makes you really resilient. So I was able to navigate those challenges. I was able to do that with. Increased confidence. I was able to get more comfortable with. The new hobbies and some dreams I wanted and become more clear about the type of person I wanted to date, the type of person I would want to be married to [00:29:00] and just be more thoughtful about that.

Um, using dating as an example before, look, I've been on the dating apps off and on. Quite a few times. But this last time, before I went back on there, I was very intentional about deciding whether or not I really wanted to get remarried. Whether or not I wanted to give the time that would be needed to dating someone and to fostering that relationship.

And I waffled a lot in the beginning, back and forth, back and forth. Like, yeah, that would be nice, but it's a lot of work. Yeah, that would be nice, but I have to share my space. those types of things. But through all of that thought work, through thinking through what life would be like and through those moments of watching my kids or going to events and sitting there by myself and thinking how much sweeter it would be to have someone to [00:30:00] share that with.

Me, I was able to much more confidently decide like, yes, I do want to date again. I loved being a wife. I want to be married again. I know there's going to be some personal sacrifice as there isn't any relationship. And I know there are going to be things that we have to work through, but ultimately I feel like it's worth it for me to be in that relationship.

And it's something that I truly cherished and enjoyed. And I want to experience again, deciding that up front. Before I went through the dating process, really helped me when I had those doubts that creeped up, when I had fears, when I started second guessing, like, uh, do I really want to move forward with this?

Do I really want to be engaged? Do I really want to move forward with this? I don't know. I don't know. You know, do these things with this person. I was able to say, yes, I've already thought through it. I've thought through it a ton. I know this is what I want to do. This is why I said, I want to do it. I still believe in that.

I'm [00:31:00] going to move forward and just knock down those doubts and fears pop up in my path. So that was really helpful to have done the work and figuring out what I wanted. For my future and making those dreams and those goals really clear so I could be very clear about what it was I was looking for and what it was I was not looking for.

Embracing change and new beginnings is so important as you're trying to take those first baby steps into figuring this all out, like who you are as a person, who you want to be. Things that you want to do, what you want your future to look like, just embracing the change and embracing those new beginnings and

recognizing that this may not be the future that you initially had planned on. This may not even have been what you would have wanted before you lost your person, but you can think of it as an adventure and you don't really know where you're going to end [00:32:00] up. Exactly. Even when we think we know where we're going to end up.

As we know, as widows, we don't know for sure how all that's gonna come together, but you can start to create some excitement and going, you know what, this is an adventure. And just like I did with my little planter. Right. I was like, I want to, I want to build a house. I want to build a house that's just for me.

And I don't know what it's going to look like. And I don't know, is it going to be one story? Is it going to, how many bedrooms will it have? Will it have a fireplace? Will I have an office there? There were all these things I didn't know, but I decided like, yes, this is something that I want and I want to pursue.

And I'm kind of excited about figuring it out. I'm kind of excited about looking at different floor plans and seeing which ones I like and which ones I don't like and thinking about the style of the house and what that's going to be. So as you're embracing these new things, you can start to build some excitement and thinking about, [00:33:00] wow, I get to figure some of this stuff out and I get to decide something that's going to be totally different than what I had planned on before.

It's also important to celebrate milestones and to continue to look forward. Now, I'm going to be honest. I was guilty. Well, you know how I feel about the word guilt, I think, but I did not look at my planter every day. I did not put new plants back in there after I got home. I really kind of put it away.

And occasionally I would think about it. Like, I knew I had done it, but my goals were so engraved in my mind and in my heart of what I wanted, I felt like, you know, I just needed to put it away, I guess. I'm not really sure what I was thinking there. But I kind of surprised myself a few weeks back when I was thinking about the planter and everything I had put on there and that amazing [00:34:00] exercise that we did and building this and the thoughts and the care and the love that went into it.

And I thought, wow, pretty much everything that I put on and in this planter in less than a year has come to fruition or has significantly advanced. And I just think. It would have been so amazing if I had kept up with my planner and my tracking sheet to say, this was my goal. I'm 1 quarter in or, um, 1 month in where am I in correlation to that?

Have I made progress with that? I would have felt like I made so much more progress than I did waiting to the end of the year and reflecting back and going, wow, I really did accomplish a lot of things that I had. As my goals and things that I wanted, I could have been celebrating more throughout the year and been more excited about the journey rather than waiting until the end of the year.

And then being excited about [00:35:00] celebrating those things.

So this year, keeping in theme with my. Word of the year intention. My intention and my goal for 2024 is to help widows do just that. To set our goals at the beginning of the year as we did last year, but this year to really walk hand in hand with them. To measure and monitor their goals for the year to periodically check to see where they are and to help them see that even when it feels like they're not moving forward, or they're just taking little baby steps, or they really haven't moved that far along in reaching those dreams and goals that infrequently looking back, they really have come a long way.

They really have moved so much further. To meeting their goals or achieving them, then really what they even thought was possible and I want to encourage [00:36:00] you that if you're in a place where. Having a goal just seems so far away or pointless or like, that's the furthest thing that you want, then maybe your goal should be getting to a place where you want to set more goals, where you want to start exploring.

What could be possible? What is possible? What would it take to get you from where you are to where you want to be? A lot can be accomplished in one year. And as we already know, time has gone by and does go by so incredibly fast. It's hard for me to think about the fact that it's been two and a half years since Nathan died.

On one hand, it feels like a lifetime. On another hand, it feels like six months ago. Time goes by so fast. Where will you be a year from now?[00:37:00]

All right. So if you are excited about setting some goals or in dreaming or in discovering what that could look like for 2024, I want to invite you to join me and other amazing widows in the Brave Widow membership community for the month of January only. And for the couple of days this podcast is out before it's published at the end of December, I am offering a 30 day free trial of the Brave widow membership community.

I know that just 30 days in the membership community that you are going to fall in love with what's there and the people that are there and the amazing community and connection that we have. inside of that group. If you want to set goals and you want to accomplish them, then walk on a journey with other widows who are doing the same, who are going to help hold each other accountable, who are [00:38:00] going to cheer each other on, who are going to support you and listen to you when you're going through a tough time.

You want to be able to connect with other people who get it, who understand and who have walked the path. That you are walking, and you can do all of that and so much more inside the membership community. It doesn't take a lot of time. So if you're thinking, I don't have a lot of time to commit to this.

How many hours is this? Look, it's totally based on how much time you want to commit and devote to it. We have two calls that happen every month. They're every other week, and they usually happen in the Evenings on a weekday, and they're recorded. So if you can't come for that hour, then you can watch that recording later at another time.

That's more convenient for you. Or if there's a topic you want us to talk about, you know, you're not gonna be able to attend. You could put a request in for [00:39:00] us to cover that topic. If you need coaching. You need feedback, you have questions, you feel stuck, you feel like you don't know what your next exact step should be, then we do real time coaching on that call and we'll give you feedback on exactly what.

I would do next if I was in your shoes, exactly what another widow would do if she were in your shoes. That's one of the great things about having those calls. It's just the openness in the transparency that we have in a private group with each other. We have courses that are in there. So if you want to learn how to do things like make new friends.

You know, how does somebody in their 40s go out and make new friends? Is there like a friend app? What can you do? I teach you how to do that. If you feel stuck in grief and you don't know what to work on next, there's a course for that. If you're struggling with brain fog and you need some ideas [00:40:00] for getting through it, There's a course for that.

The courses are there to help support you and to supplement you. They're not required. They're there purely for your benefit and your purpose, but we have all kinds of resources there in the, in the membership community that are meant to support you and help you. And I really want to see 2024 be a year of meaning and purpose and intention for you like 2023 was.

So again, from now, the time that this podcast is, is published through the month of January up until midnight, January 31st, I'm offering 30 day free trial in the brave widow membership community, because I want you to see and experience how. Awesome and amazing. It is being part of that community. And I want you to have a container and a space to set goals for yourself to start to dream dreams [00:41:00] again and ultimately to create a life that you love.

And if that sounds impossible, you need to join the community. And if it totally sounds possible to you and. Exciting. Of course. I would love to have you in the community as well. Go to Bravewidow. com slash join and the coupon code to enter is new year.

All right, guys, I hope that 2024 for you is a powerful and wonderful year.

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Emily Jones: Hey guys. Thank you so much for listening to the Brave Widow Podcast. I would love to help you take your next step, whether that's healing your heart, finding hope, or achieving your dreams for the future.

Do you need a safe space to connect with other like-minded widows? Do you wish you had how-tos for getting through the next steps in your journey, organizing your life or [00:42:00] moving through grief? What about live calls where you get answers to your burning questions? The Brave Widow Membership Community is just what you need.

Inside you'll find courses to help guide you, a community of other widows to connect with, live coaching and q and a calls, and small group coaching where you can work on what matters most to you. Learn how to heal your heart, find hope, reclaim joy, and dream again for the future. It is possible. Head on over to brave widow.com to learn more.