Embracing Self-Compassion in Times of Adversity

Hey there!

Get ready for an emotionally insightful episode of Keep the Weight Off podcast with Dr. Angela and Marchelle! In this week's episode, we take an empowering trip through the stages of grief through a personal story that Dr. Angela shares.

Here's what you can expect:

🔍 Unveiling the Emotional Roller Coaster: Dr. Angela shares her personal journey of navigating through the stages of grief after an unexpected turn of events in her decision to become a kidney donor for a friend.

💔 Recognizing Denial: Learn how denial played a role in Dr Angela’s initial reaction to the news, and explore how this stage manifests in various forms during times of loss. 💬 Bargaining: Dr Angela shows us the bargaining stage, shedding light on the lengths we go to reconcile conflicting emotions and realities.

🔥 Managing Anger and Blame: Explore the powerful emotions of anger and resentment, and how they can impact our perception of events and those involved.

😔 Navigating Sadness and Depression: Discover how acknowledging and processing these emotions is essential for healing.

❤️ Cultivating Self-Compassion: Discover the importance of self-compassion in times of suffering, and learn practical strategies for extending kindness and understanding towards yourself.

💡 Insight into Kidney Donation: Gain awareness about the critical need for kidney donors and how you can potentially save a life by considering donation.

🌱 Embracing the 50:50 of Life: Reflect on the concept of life's balance between positive and negative emotions, and how accepting this balance can lead to greater overall happiness.

Episode Highlights:

(04:48) I wanted to explain grief because we don't just grieve over people dying. Grief is a universally felt emotion that occurs with any loss. Grief comes in five stages, and this comes from Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross. They are usually sequential, but not necessarily. The first stage of grief is denial, the second stage is bargaining, then there's anger, depression and then acceptance. And it's a wild, crazy, emotional rollercoaster ride to go through all of this.

(10:57) Sometimes I'm starting to feel like maybe everything's going to be okay, we'll get through this, sort of like a back and forth in between those. I'm not in denial anymore. I'm not bargaining anymore. I'm really not in too much anger, mostly sadness. It's Acceptance and the occasional dip back in the anger. This has not been an easy ride at all. You might be asking, why am I sharing all of this with you? Because I want everyone to understand that all of us suffer. It doesn't matter who you are. If you are a human being, you are going to experience powerful human emotions. And I think it helps so much to understand this and take the time that you need to actually feel your emotions and cry and scream and do whatever needs to be done to process them.

(12:32) Remember, life is 50:50. It's 50 percent positive emotions and 50 percent negative emotions. We can't know happiness without knowing sadness, we can't know what connection feels like without experiencing loneliness, we can't know what peace feels like without knowing anxiety, and we can't know excitement without knowing boredom. This is part of the 50-50 of life. This disappointment is a part of being human.

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