A Childs Raw Take on Grief

A Childs Raw Take on Grief

In this episode of the Creative Grief Journey, the host talks with her guest, Brynnlee, about what grief feels like for a child after her baby brother Willy died when he was one. Brynnlee shares that she felt sad and describes how painting, coloring, and making things together helped her feel happy and gave her no time to be sad. They discuss the different art materials Brynnlee uses, what she likes to paint, and how creativity can help a sad heart feel better over time. Brynnlee also talks about planting and caring for flowers and a special tree, and how she comforts her mom when she cries. The episode emphasizes that grief looks different for everyone, it’s okay to cry, and loved ones can be held in hearts and memories, with an invitation to join a free Skool support community. 00:00 Childhood Grief Intro 00:48 Willys Story 01:30 Coping Through Creativity 02:48 Art Supplies Evolution 04:09 Painting Joyful Details 05:41 Choosing Happiness 06:35 Healing With Nature 07:49 Helping Mom Through Tears 08:19 How Grief Changes 10:05 Closing Support Invite 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE [https://www.skool.com/creative-grief-freedom-formula-5014/about] 🌟 Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE [https://link.onebizly.com/widget/form/kA7UOIICJiBStRsVMuNb] 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE [https://join.dawnreneebova.com/tffj] Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bov [https://www.facebook.com/dawn.bova.art]a IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ [https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/] YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn [https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app] Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com

Why Heartbreak Makes You More Creative

Discussing how being a multi-creative who once felt pressured to choose one passion, now sees many passions as a gift, a lesson reinforced through grief. While preparing the backyard and cleaning the pool, an unexpected memory of Bradley getting hurt on the pool gate triggers sudden tears, illustrating how grief arrives uninvited in ordinary moments. They emphasize the goal isn’t to stop grief, but to keep living while holding both tears and joy, supported by travel, retreats, self-care, creativity, and community. After realizing they rarely celebrate accomplishments, they recall “ripples” they’ve created, including an act of kindness for Jake—giving him Bradley’s tennis shoes after an overdose—which he later credits as meaningful in his recovery. The episode invites viewers to list hardships they’ve overcome, pursue joy without guilt, and consider the Rooted and Rising Retreat in Belize and the speaker’s Skool group. 00:00 Many Passions Gift 01:35 Grief Hits Suddenly 03:09 Living With Both 04:02 Recovery Needs Community 04:33 Celebrate Your Ripples 05:45 Jake And The Shoes 07:49 Invitation To Create 09:15 Joy Honors Love 09:47 Belize Retreat Invite 11:24 Final Encouragement Join us in Belize Here is the info: Belize Retreat [https://www.heliosrecovery.com/rootedandrising] 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE [https://www.skool.com/creative-grief-freedom-formula-5014/about] 🌟 Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE [https://link.onebizly.com/widget/form/kA7UOIICJiBStRsVMuNb] 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE [https://join.dawnreneebova.com/tffj] Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bov [https://www.facebook.com/dawn.bova.art]a IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ [https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/] YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn [https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app] Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com

How Can I Dream Again

The speaker explores how grief affects both sleeping dreams and “living dreams,” sharing personal stories of losing her father in an automobile accident and later her son, Brad, and how these losses altered her relationship with dreaming. She recounts a vivid, comforting dream Brad’s friend shared—seeing Brad on a rainy Florida beach saying, “Tell everybody it’s beautiful here, and I’ll see you later”—and explains psychological reasons dreams can change during grief, including disrupted REM sleep, stress hormones, trauma, and emotional processing, while also describing dreams as potentially spiritual and mysterious. Shifting to life dreams, she describes how grief can shrink motivation and joy, and encourages rebuilding purpose through focus, vision boards, journaling, and meaningful action, including her work with Ohio CAN (Change Addiction Now) supporting early recovery. She closes with reflective questions to help viewers reconnect with hope, creativity, health, environment, relationships, meaning, and future possibilities, and invites people to join her community, retreats, and coaching. 00:00 Grief And Dreams 00:49 Personal Loss Stories 01:47 A Comforting Dream 03:18 Why Dreams Change 04:42 Spiritual Meaning Of Dreams 05:54 Awake Life Dreams 06:57 Purpose From Pain 08:58 Focus And Attraction 11:46 Write These Questions 12:35 Joy And Aliveness 13:04 Creativity Prompts 14:12 Body And Energy 15:01 Home And Environment 15:55 Relationships And Support 16:48 Meaning And Legacy 17:14 Future Vision Questions 17:39 Closing Encouragement 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE [https://www.skool.com/creative-grief-freedom-formula-5014/about] 🌟 Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE [https://link.onebizly.com/widget/form/kA7UOIICJiBStRsVMuNb] 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE [https://join.dawnreneebova.com/tffj] Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bov [https://www.facebook.com/dawn.bova.art]a IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ [https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/] YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn [https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app] Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com

I Stopped Living After Loss; Here's How I Came Back

How grief can pull you into survival mode, making you stop dreaming, planning, and caring for yourself, and argues that healing isn’t “moving on” but coming back to yourself without toxic positivity or denying the pain.  How grief affects the nervous system and brain—fatigue, depression, guilt about joy, memory issues, decision fatigue, increased cortisol, low dopamine—and emphasize that neglecting yourself isn’t laziness but overwhelm.  This episode offers practical “baby steps” and bigger steps to rebuild identity and safety through movement/strength training, decluttering, creativity, nourishing routines, community, and retreats, and discusses visualization, neuroplasticity, and intentional action (including a personal story of manifesting a Florida home). Inviting you to a day-long Younique Wellness retreat in Bellevue, Ohio focused on creativity, nourishment, nervous system regulation, and community. 00:00 When Grief Erases You 00:41 Coming Back to Yourself 02:03 Why Self Care Stops 03:37 The Healing Pivot 04:56 Tiny Habits That Rebuild 06:57 Creativity and Flow State 07:52 Manifestation With Action 11:13 Dream Home Visualization Story 13:58 Let Yourself Desire Again 15:10 Baby Steps vs Big Leaps 17:45 Retreat and Community Healing 19:24 You Still Get to Live 20:15 Final Goodbye and Subscribe 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE [https://www.skool.com/creative-grief-freedom-formula-5014/about] 🌟 Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE [https://link.onebizly.com/widget/form/kA7UOIICJiBStRsVMuNb] 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE [https://join.dawnreneebova.com/tffj] Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bov [https://www.facebook.com/dawn.bova.art]a IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ [https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/] YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn [https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app] Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com

The Exhaustion Nobody Warns You About After Grief

Dawn explains that grief affects the body as well as emotions, often causing deep exhaustion, heaviness, brain fog, pain, sleep and appetite changes, gut issues, immune crashes, and nervous system and hormonal disruption. Drawing on personal experiences after losing her son and later a father, she describes “grief brain,” difficulty thinking, and how society’s pressure to “keep going” conflicts with a body stuck in survival mode. She challenges common beliefs such as needing to be strong or that time alone heals, emphasizing restoration and rest. Small, consistent actions—journaling, making the bed, stretching, walking, sunlight, cooking, music, and simple creative practices like doodling—can build momentum, support dopamine and endorphin release, and help move grief through the body. There is a free Creative Grief Journey Skool community, journal prompts, and upcoming retreats in Belize and Ohio. 00:00 Grief Lives in the Body 01:41 Physical Signs and Survival Mode 03:13 Grief Brain and Trauma Fog 04:49 Symptoms Checklist and Nervous System 07:44 Grief Myths and Permission to Rest 08:57 Tiny Habits and Creative Healing 12:41 Self Soothing and Momentum 14:25 Community Support and Retreat Tools 16:16 Nature’s Pace of Healing 18:16 Closing Encouragement and Share 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE [https://www.skool.com/creative-grief-freedom-formula-5014/about] 🌟 Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE [https://link.onebizly.com/widget/form/kA7UOIICJiBStRsVMuNb] 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE [https://join.dawnreneebova.com/tffj] Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bov [https://www.facebook.com/dawn.bova.art]a IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ [https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/] YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn [https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app] Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com