Healing the Empty Nester's Grieving Heart : 100 Practical Ideas for Parents After the Kids Move Out, Go Off to College, or Start Taking Flight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolfelt, Alan D.

Series:

Healing Your Grieving Heart series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Parent and child.

Separation (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (129 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Healing the Empty Nester's Grieving Heart

Place of Publication:

Fort Collins : Companion Press, 2017.

Summary:

You've spent most of your adult life focused on the care and raising of your children, and now they're leaving. For you and for them, this major transition is often challenging in many ways. You may feel surprised at the power of your grief--a confusing mixture of sadness, hope, emptiness, fear, excitement, and other emotions all at once. This book by one of the world's most beloved grief counselors helps parents understand their normal and necessary empty nester grief. The 100 practical tips and activities are designed to help you acknowledge and express your feelings of loss, foster love and respect, and, over time, find ways to re-instill your life with meaning. Advice is also offered for nurturing a marriage or partnership through this challenging time.

Contents:

Front Cover

Title Page

Half Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

1. Make plans for the big day

2. Practice owning-and communicating-your grief

3. Allow for numbness

4. Understand that your child is also grieving

5. Practice breathing in and out

6. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 1. Acknowledge that children leaving home is a significant life transition and loss

7. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 2. Learn to embrace the pain

8. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 3. Remember your life together with your child so far

9. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 4. Work on your changing self-identity

10. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 5. Find new ways to connect with your child

11. Understand the six needs of mourning

Need 6: Accept help from others

12. Respect and communicate with your partner

13. Don't forget your other children

14. Start an empty-nest journal

15. Do nothing

16. If you're divorced, know that empty-nester grief can be more complicated

17. If you're a single parent, seek extra support

18. If you've been a stay-at-home parent, be extracompassionate with yourself

19. If your child is an only, know that empty-nester grief can be more complicated

20. If you're a mother going through hormonal changes, work with your healthcare provider

21. Inventory your losses

22. Develop ways to wrangle the worry

23. Put together a small photo album or photo book for your child

24. Harness the power of intention

25. Cocoon

26. Embrace fear

27. Relearn how to take care of yourself

28. Make a plan for the first special days without your child

29. Ignore hurtful advice

30. Give your child some space

31. Declare your values

32. Notice five things

33. Practice spontaneity.

34. Find ways to cope with the loneliness

35. Be on the watch for old griefs

36. Know that your body will grieve too

37. Give yourself time

38. Go off the deep end

39. Be aware of "borrowed tears"

40. Acknowledge your grief over your own aging

41. Seek help if you may be clinically depressed

42. Create new ways of connecting

43. Explore any regrets

44. Allow for resentment

45. Put plans on the calendar

46. Rebuild friendships

47. Recommit to (or rethink) your partner

48. Practice living in the now

49. Reacquaint yourself with you

50. Understand the difference between clean and dirty pain

51. Make time for spirituality

52. Leverage technology

53. Make friends with the empty bedroom

54. Believe in the power of "and"

55. Practice thinking, "I want..."

56. Renew intimacy

57. Consider your career

58. Build new communities

59. Reconsider the "empty" in "empty nest"

60. Think momentum

61. Ask yourself: What gives me joy?

62. Be grateful for your grief

63. Celebrate your heritage

64. Start new traditions

65. Spend your precious time on what really matters

66. Take lessons

67. Reconnect with your siblings

68. Dangle a carrot

69. Find the humor

70. Fix something

71. Work through dashed expectations or broken dreams

72. Expand your life to intersect with your independent child's

73. Empty the empty nest

74. Surround yourself with positivity

75. Review your finances

76. Spend more time with your own parents

77. Consider where you want to live

78. Say thank you

79. Get a kid fix

80. Enjoy what the earth has to offer

81. Work through estrangement

82. Let your hair down

83. Throw an empty-nest party

84. Beware of pressure-cooker syndrome

85. Take a digital reckoning

86. Act "as if"

87. See the world anew.

88. Recapture your listening skills

89. Adopt a pet

90. Take a gap year

91. Savor the flavor of dining without kids

92. Date your partner

93. Move plans to the front burner

94. Grow yourself

95. Get ready to catch the boomerang

96. Imagine yourself at 96

97. Say the unsaid

98. Celebrate your parenting success

99. Know that parenting never ends

100. Place a photo where you'll see it often

A Final Word.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781617222511

1617222518

OCLC:

1045426174