🎧 Episode 199 – Bittersweet Theme: 💫 Learning to honor and allow the emotion of bittersweet — the ache where joy 🌤️ and sadness 🌧️ intertwine. In this first episode of Heidi's Emotions Series, she explores one of life's most tender paradoxes — bittersweet — that space where the heart stretches between what was and what's becoming. 🕊️ Heidi shares personal stories of sending all three children to college 🎓 — the joy of their independence and the ache of quiet rooms and empty shoes at home 👟. She reminds us that bittersweet isn't broken; it's love expanding to hold both pride and grief. ❤️‍🩹 Bittersweet is the bridge 🌉 between past and present, endings and beginnings. From selling her family's beloved home 🏡 to adjusting to new rhythms, Heidi invites us to honor both sides of the emotion instead of resisting it. Quoting Brené Brown, she says: "You can't get to courage without walking through vulnerability first." Bittersweet is vulnerability — our heart saying, "I love so much that letting go hurts." 💔💖 🧠 Nervous System Wisdom When we feel both the bitter and the sweet, our nervous system experiences: 🌼 Expansion (joy, pride, gratitude) 🌧️ Contraction (loss, change, longing) If we deny either side, our system stays dysregulated. The key is to make space for both. 🌬️ Tools to Stay Anchored 🗣️ Name it: "This is bittersweet." Naming calms your brain and brings you back online. 🌸 Breathe: Inhale the sweetness 🍯, exhale the ache 🌫️ — whisper, "Both are welcome." 👣 Ground: Feel your feet, smell the familiar, notice the sounds around you — remind your body, I'm safe. 🚶‍♀️ Move: Walk, stretch, cry, or dance — emotion is energy in motion. 💖 Honor the Shift Instead of saying, "I shouldn't be this sad," Heidi reminds us: "It's not that something's wrong — it's that something important just shifted." Slow down. Let tears fall as acts of love, not weakness. 🙏 Practice gratitude for the moments that made you who you are. This is mono no aware — "the beauty of things passing." 🌅 Because that ache in your chest? It's just love with nowhere to go yet. 💞 We're not broken for feeling bittersweet — we're beautifully human. 🩷 ✨ A confident mother is the greatest gift to her family — not a perfect one. Visit heidibenjaminsen.com for the 💕 College Mom Course and to explore private coaching that helps you stay anchored, calm, and confident through every season of change. 🌿 Set up a consult call at https://calendly.com/heidibenjaminsen

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