Peggy Bell

Peggy Bell is a retired educator with forty years of teaching experience, as well as an author and bestselling co-author. After retirement, Peggy wanted to do more with her life, while continuing to add value to the lives of others. She became a certified personal development coach. Having been a widow herself and knowing first-hand the pain of losing a spouse, she started an online support group for widows and wrote a book called, Life After Loss for Widows: Lifting the Veil of Grief. Peggy also empowers women who are overcome with self-doubt to discover their inner truths and thrive in life according to their terms. Peggy is a firm believer that it is never too late to go after your dreams. For more information visit www.peggymbell.com.

Articles:

How My Holidays Evolved

How My Holidays Evolved I remember the first time the holidays came around after my husband’s passing. It had only been three months. My emotions were still so raw, and my mind was still trying to understand what my heart was feeling. Even though my daughters were grown, I tried to be strong for them. I didn’t want to make the holidays worse than they already were. I made the decision ahead of time that we were not going to ignore the loss, but rather keep him as a part of our holiday season. And that’s what we did. I […]

Stay Connected with Others While Grieving

Wired for Connections We as humans, are social beings. We are wired for connections with other human beings. Connecting with others gives us purpose and meaning to our lives. When we genuinely connect with others, we form deep bonds and trust with those individuals. We feel seen, heard, and valued. The “reward center” in our brain lights up when we make those connections because we are doing what we are wired to do. When people are grieving, however, they many times tend to isolate themselves from the outside world. They want to be left alone, sometimes just to wrap their […]

After My Husband’s Death: Remembering is Grieving

Living with the loss of a spouse is painful and sometimes even debilitating. It’s so difficult to move forward from such a heartache. It’s especially difficult when the death is unexpected. The grief journey can be brutal. It can bring feelings of sadness, anger, depression, guilt, and disbelief. Letting go and saying goodbye to a spouse is something none of us want to do when we are happily married. Personally, it took a toll on me emotionally and physically at first. I couldn’t accept that he was gone or that I had become his widow. It took almost two years […]

How Do I Move Forward When It Hurts So Badly?

There have been experiences in my life that were difficult to overcome. However, they pale in comparison to the difficulty I experienced when losing my husband. It was as though my heart was ripped from my body. How do I move forward? Early on in my grief, I couldn’t sleep, I had trouble eating and keeping food down, and I couldn’t think clearly. Let’s just lay it there. My life was a mess. Wanting to Stay in Grief I had been married for 30 years, more than half of my life at the time of his death. Besides our jobs, […]

After Losing Spouse, Be Aware of Online Deceivers

When you first lose your spouse, many feelings consume you. You may feel numb, fearful, hurt, crushed, angry, in disbelief, or broken. Maybe you feel a combination or even all of these. You aren’t thinking as clearly as you normally would. Sometimes you are left feeling vulnerable because you want your life to not be so painful. In doing so, you may let your guard down more than you normally would. It’s sad but also important to realize that not everyone is looking out for your wellbeing. If you decide to go on social media groups or to join other […]

Second Holiday Without Your Spouse Harder Than First

It’s the holiday season again. People told you last year the first without your spouse would be the most difficult. But here it is, another year past, and the second holiday without your spouse is harder than the first. Is something wrong with you? If you are wondering that you are not alone. For many, the second year is actually more difficult than the first. There are reasons for this and one or more may be the case for you. Your spouse died closer to the end of the year. Sometimes if the loss was still very new, you could […]

Dealing with Guilt While Grieving

The road of grief is paved with many emotions. You can experience denial, shock, anger, fear, depression, and bargaining and guilt. You may not feel all of them, but one emotion many experience is the feeling of guilt. You may find that guilt while grieving comes at different stages of your process. Early Stage of Guilt While Grieving When you first lose your spouse, you may feel guilty about the fact that you are still here but your husband is not. You wonder how is that fair and sometimes even wish you had gone instead of him. So how do […]

Tips for Dealing with a Spouse’s Belongings

A difficult task to tackle after losing your spouse is dealing with the spouse’s belongings: what to keep and what to give away. It is such an emotional decision. You may have feelings of guilt and sadness that are overwhelming. Even though they are no longer with us, you may feel that you are intruding on their privacy by going though their personal belongings. Remember grief has no timeline and neither does this task. Do not feel pressured into doing something you do not feel ready to do. If you are pressured into it by others then you may also […]

4 Things to Remember About Grief

Losing a spouse is one of the most difficult life changing events a person will experience. It brings with it a huge amount of stress. We find ourselves dealing with issues we probably didn’t realize would be a factor. You might wonder if what you are feeling is normal and whether you will ever be happy again. Below are four things to remember about grief. Your heart will feel like it has been ripped apart. Losing a spouse is so very painful. You will feel as though your heart has been ripped to shreds. You will wonder how you can […]

Stages of Grief: Real of Not?

Excerpt from Life After Loss For Widows: Lifting the Veil of Grief You may have heard there are stages of grief we all go through. If you google it, you might see there are five stages. Another article may say there are seven stages. Still others say there are really no stages at all. Perhaps grief consists of emotions in no particular order and not everyone may experience all of them. Although I am no doctor, and I don’t even play one on TV, I choose to believe the latter. In fact, science is acknowledging that more today than they […]

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