Dear Divorce Diary: A Fresh Approach To Healing Grief & Building A Life Of Confidence After Divorce

If someone has ever told you to calm down after divorce—and it made everything inside you feel louder, sharper, or more volatile—you’re not broken.You’re responding to a loss of connection.In this Thursday Panel Rant, Dawn and the crew get cheeky, honest, and deeply real about why “calm down” is one of the fastest ways to shut a woman down—and why it so often backfires in relationships after divorce.This episode explores:Why being told to calm down often feels like being told your feelings are inconvenientHow emotional suppression turns into explosive anger laterThe link between anxiety, anger, and broken trust after divorceHow gaslighting and dismissal train women to doubt their own realityThe difference between nervous system discomfort from growth vs. true emotional unsafetyWhy anger isn’t the problem—it’s informationThe panel also weaves in the concept of Martin Buber’s I–Thou relationship dynamic—reminding us that real connection requires honoring both people’s lived experience, not just managing the loudest discomfort in the room.Because here’s the truth:Women don’t need to calm down.They need to feel seen, understood, and safe enough to tell the truth.Instead of asking yourself to be quieter, smaller, or easier to handle, this episode invites a different question:What feels unsafe right now—for me, or for them?That question—asked with honesty instead of judgment—is often where regulation actually begins.This is not a polished episode.It’s a lived one.A little ranty.A little funny.And deeply validating for any woman who was taught to silence herself to survive.Welcome to Panel Rant Thursday.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawnInstagram: (@dawnwiggins)Instagram: (@coachtiffini)On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.comA podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.Support the show✨Join the Cocoon Community - your people are waiting! ✨

What if this life after divorce never gets better?What if this is just how it is now?What he ruined everything? What if I can't be healed?If those thoughts have been looping in your mind after divorce, this episode is for you.In the Season 5 premiere of Dear Divorce Diary, we’re opening a powerful six-week series devoted to naming the thing under the thing—the deeper, often invisible forces that keep women stuck in anxiety, overthinking, and emotional exhaustion after divorce.And today, we begin with one of the scariest experiences of all:the fear that the way you feel right now is permanent.Here’s what most of us have never realized:Those thoughts aren’t coming from weakness or fear.They’re coming from a nervous system trying its best to keep you afloat while you're completely collapsed.In this episode, we’re not fixing anxiety—we’re explaining it.Because understanding what your body is doing is often the first moment it finally exhales.In this episode, we explore:Why divorce anxiety often intensifies after the divorce is finalThe difference between panic… and the deeper fear of permanenceHow anxiety gets mistaken for identity—and why that mattersWhat happens when trust has been wounded by loss, betrayal, or overwhelmWhy solutions often arrive from places you never could have predictedHow protective, pessimistic parts can reject help—and how to soften that patternYou’ll also hear personal stories from Dawn, Joy, and Tiffini about moments when they couldn’t see a way forward—until something unexpected showed up and changed everything.And at the end of the episode, we debut a new community segment: ✨ Small Wins, Big Shifts ✨ where we share listener-submitted moments that prove healing after divorce doesn’t have to be dramatic to be real.If you’ve been afraid that this feeling will never end… If you’ve wondered whether you’ll ever trust yourself—or life—again… Let this episode remind you:Nothing you’re feeling means you’re broken. It means your system learned how to survive.And survival is not the end of the story.🎧 Stay tuned for Thursday’s companion episode, where we guide you through a nervous-system practice to help your body feel safe again—no fixing, no forcing, just settling.Stress-Less Flower Essence by Freedom FlowersFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawnInstagram: (@dawnwiggins)Instagram: (@coachtiffini)On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.comA podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.Support the show✨Join the Cocoon Community - your people are waiting! ✨

This is not a lesson about divorce healing.It’s not advice.It’s a pause.Day 12 of the 12 Days of Divorce Christmas is simply a blessing—offered to you exactly as you are.If these last 12 days stirred grief, relief, exhaustion, hope, or something you can’t quite name, this episode is here to hold that with you.No fixing.No reframing.No pushing forward.Just a few quiet moments of being witnessed.You’ve been strong longer than you should have had to be.You’ve carried more than most people ever saw.And nothing about what you needed was wrong.As we step into a new year, this is our prayer for you:That you feel chosen.That you feel wanted.That your nervous system learns what safety feels like again.And that you remember—you were never meant to do this alone.Let yourself rest here. Sending all our love,Dawn, Joy & TiffiniFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawnInstagram: (@dawnwiggins)Instagram: (@coachtiffini)On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.comA podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.Support the show✨Join the Cocoon Community - your people are waiting! ✨

If New Year’s resolutions have never worked for you...especially after divorce, it’s not because you lack discipline, motivation, or follow-through.It’s because the version of you who survived divorce is not wired to safely become the woman you’re trying to create.After divorce, most women try to change their lives by changing their behavior.But behavior never sticks when the nervous system doesn’t feel safe expanding.In this New Year’s Day episode, we break down why resolutions fail specifically after divorce—and what actually creates change instead.We talk about:Why “New Year, New You” language backfires on a nervous system shaped by lossHow inherited roles, survival strategies, and emotional suppression block capacityThe real reason desire alone isn’t enough to create changeWhy your brain will offer a thousand excuses—and why that doesn’t mean you’re failingWhat permission has to do with confidence, worthiness, and follow-throughYou’ll be guided through a powerful journaling exercise we call the New Year Permission Slip—not focused on what you want, but on who you’re willing to become to receive it.Because the woman who calls in a fuller life after divorce:has more capacityfeels safer being seentrusts herself more deeplyand no longer abandons herself to stay comfortableAnd she doesn’t arrive by accident.🎯 Your InvitationAsk yourself:What am I calling in this year?And what am I willing to put on the line to become the woman who can hold it?We believe in you.The real question is—will you give yourself permission to believe in you too?Join Dear Divorce Diary Premium to access the full 12 Days of Divorce Christmas.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawnInstagram: (@dawnwiggins)Instagram: (@coachtiffini)On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.comA podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.Support the show✨Join the Cocoon Community - your people are waiting! ✨

New Year’s Eve has a way of turning self-criticism up to full volume after divorce.The comparisons.The sense that you should be further along.The quiet question of what’s wrong with me that this still hurts?If you find yourself being unusually hard on yourself today, this episode isn’t here to tell you to “think positive” or try harder.It’s here to explain why this happens—and what your nervous system is actually doing when self-doubt takes over.In this episode, we talk about:Why divorce retrains your nervous system to scan for failure instead of progressWhy pride and self-validation feel uncomfortable or even unsafe for so many womenHow New Year’s Eve amplifies comparison, loneliness, and internal pressureA simple practice to help your system start noticing what is workingThis is not about forcing confidence or pretending you’re okay.It’s about understanding why self-criticism shows up when safety feels fragile—and how to interrupt the spiral without shaming yourself for being in it.🎄 This is Day 10 of the 12 Days of Divorce Christmas—short, steady episodes designed to support your nervous system during one of the hardest weeks of the year.Join Dear Divorce Diary Premium to access the full 12 Days of Divorce Christmas.Capacity builds in connection. Hugs ❤️Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawnInstagram: (@dawnwiggins)Instagram: (@coachtiffini)On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.comA podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and letting go.Support the show✨Join the Cocoon Community - your people are waiting! ✨