Hello and greetings and welcome to the Live Happy Now podcast.

I am your host, J.R. Houston, alongside again, Deborah High. She'll be joining us here in just a little bit.

We are excited that you are making us a part of your day, wherever you are in the world. However, you may be listening. We're also excited about our partners, Live Happy magazine. They've got an issue on newsstands now. They've got the issue on the digital edition, the Apple store, also the Google Play store, has the digital edition available for you. Please check that out. And, of course, go to LiveHap happy.com to learn more. Also, check out our other partner's website. Our other partner, of course, life reimagined. Their website, lifereimagined.org slash happy, because as you awaken to the power of happiness, so do your dreams. What's next? Find out by going to lifereimagined.org slash happy well in this episode we're

going to be touching on a difficult subject and that's finding joy after the loss of a loved one

and although everyone has to deal with grief and in their own way right it's possible to be

able to get back to living that life full of joy and find authentic happiness once again. We're talking with

Kristen Mekoff, who's a licensed master's level social worker and author of the book, A Widow's Guide

Healing, Gentle Support and Advice for the first five years, and was contributor to Live Happy 10

Practices for Choosing Joy. There's another plug for you for you the book there, Deborah.

Thank you. The piece of title, The Healing Power of Gratitude.

Kristen Mekoff, thank you so much for joining us.

I think this is something that a lot of people maybe struggle with early on during the

loss, during the grieving process of the loss of a loved one.

Tell us a little bit about how this book came

about and how you integrated what you learned in grad school into your book.

Unfortunately, in 2007, I was 33 when my husband died about eight weeks after going to the doctor.

We didn't know it at the time, but he had advanced adrenal cancer.

Although his blood work was completely normal normal and he was still on the treadmill

weeks before he died, he was actually very, very sick.

And I often say that although I have a master's degree in social work, very little

prepared me for the palliative care, the hospice, and then the post lost, kind of the loneliness

and the grief that I felt afterwards. So it was very bittersweet as far as, you know,

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