I’m sitting down with Grief Educator Heidi Dunstan, who lost her husband Mike unexpectedly to a heart attack in 2018—the day before her 40th birthday, after she performed CPR trying to save him. We talk about what early grief actually feels like (numbness, brain fog, trauma) and what it took to feel steady again.
In this episode, we cover:
✨ Why the first 3-4 months are often the hardest, and what shifted for Heidi around the 18-month mark
✨ The brain fog of grief, and why it’s a real, physical response, not “losing it”
✨ How she chose grief-specialized counseling and why that mattered
✨ Why she traveled to Mexico to avoid the triggers of home, and what that taught her
✨ The shift from saying “I miss you” to “I love you” and how that changed her healing
✨ What friends and family get wrong when someone’s grieving, and what to say instead
If you’ve ever felt like no one knows what to say to you—or you’re the one who doesn’t know what to say to someone else—this episode is for you.
