Hey, and welcome to the Smooth Stones podcast. I’m Amy Watson, a life after baby loss coach, and I am so glad you’re here. It’s been a minute, and that’s okay. I am gonna jump right back in. So if you’ve been with me for a while, thank you for being here. I hope you were excited when this podcast popped up in your phone.

Uh, if you’re new here, welcome. Here, we’re gonna talk about the real life. Things that happen after we lose a baby because there’s grief, but there’s also a lot of life, and I want you to be able to live that life. So today, I just am gonna keep this brief, but I have something really, really exciting for you.

First, I wanna thank our sponsor. It’s not really a sponsor, but chocolate covered cinnamon bears. If you’re watching on YouTube. You can see them. Have you heard of chocolate covered cinnamon bears? Uh, I first heard of them when I came to Utah years and years ago as a thing, and I thought, that’s wild. Uh, that’s not something I’m interested in at all.

And yet they have won me over and I am loving some chocolate covered cinnamon bears. They’re at the Costco here, uh, where I live. I don’t know if they are in your area or if it’s a Utah thing, but listen. What we’re talking about today is bringing some light into your life, and I gotta say, sometimes the littlest things are the most important, especially when things feel dark.

So here’s the announcement. I’m gonna do a drum roll. I am offering to you. This October 31 days of support, and I’m calling it wrapped in light. This is going to be completely free. I actually had a different idea of something I wanted to do in October because I know that. If this is your first October after loss, it is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, which is a beautiful thing.

It also can be a really emotionally draining thing for a lot of reasons. We’re being vulnerable. We’re sharing our children, we’re getting feedback. We’re wondering what to say. We’re noticing all the other people raising awareness that can be heavy. Sometimes we’re comparing ourselves, like we see people doing really cool things and we’re like, oh, like that’s just not something I’m able to do right now.

And so. There’s a lot going on in October, and I always wanna support you in those times that feel harder and heavier and darker. So as much as I love October, I know that the reality is. It can be difficult, so I don’t want you to do it alone. So I created, Wrapped in Light I changed from what I was gonna do before because I think what I had in mind was just too much, and especially with life lately.

Uh, I’m not gonna touch on super specifics. I think we could always do that. We could always just go through the news and see what is dark and heavy, but I think that a lot of us are feeling this weight and I personally, like part of the reason I’ve had to step back a little bit from Smooth Stones and be taking care of my own family is my daughter actually attends.

School where there was recently a very high profile, um, assassination. And she was there, she was in class. She had to run. She called me. Um. And that is not a phone call that anybody wants to get, and I just looked around. I was noticing what I was feeling, what I was dealing with. I’m noticing what everyone’s sharing online, what everyone’s sharing in person, and just thought, you know what?

Things do feel dark. We need light because I believe that there’s always light. So this is going to be just a really simple thing you can sign up for. You are going to get. Every day a little message to uplift you. You’re gonna get gentle encouragement. You’re gonna get simple, tender ways to remember and honor your baby.

You’re gonna get cozy self-care ideas to bring in some warmth and some comfort. And we’re also gonna have a touch of lightheartedness because I think this is the thing we, we don’t have to be sad all the time. We don’t have to feel heavy all the time, like it’s okay to joke. It’s okay to smile. It’s okay to laugh.

It’s okay to laugh, cry or cry, laugh or whatever it is. I want you to just be able to experience emotion. So this is my goal for you this October is just to brighten and lighten the season. I feel like October is a bit of a gateway into the holidays as well, and so if we can take care of ourselves and our mental health throughout October and pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, we’re gonna be set up so much better for the holidays rather than feeling like so drained going into November.

And then it’s like, oh crap. Now it’s holidays, now it’s family gatherings. Now it’s just a lot. So here’s the thing I want you to do. Number one, if you’re not already on my email list, go get signed up. I am gonna have links in the show notes, but you can sign up for my email list. ’cause actually. Here’s the cool part.

If you’re already on my email list, you’re already gonna get this. It’s already gonna just come to you. It’s gonna be amazing. We’re gonna do this together. That is the bonus of being on my email list. Um, if you’re not there, come and join us for wrapped in light because it’s gonna be beautiful. You can go to Smooth Stones coaching.com/light, or just go to smooth stones coaching.com.

We’ll have something there that’ll get you where you need to be. You sign up. That’s all you gotta do. Sign up and then maybe commit to opening those emails. Make sure they’re not gonna spam. Make sure they’re not getting lost. I don’t want this to be something extra for you to do. I want this to be the a breath of fresh air.

I want you to look forward to these emails every day that you get to open them, that you get to feel that support, that you get to feel that community. ’cause there’s gonna be a lot of us doing this together. It’s gonna be magical, I promise you. So I also want you to invite your friends, because again, we don’t need to walk this road alone.

We don’t even need to do a 31 days of supportive, encouraging emails alone. Invite your friends and you can talk about it. You have something to share. Maybe you have ideas. Maybe it’ll help prompt you as you go through awareness Month and. Maybe you can share what you’re learning and what comes up in your heart and what comes up in your mind as you take care of yourself.

’cause I promise you, if you take care of you, everything’s gonna get easier, right? We can’t change that. Our babies died. We can’t change that. I can’t change that for you. But I can show you that there’s still so much light and no matter how long it’s been since your loss. This is going to give you the strength and the hope that you need right now that we all need right now.

We’re gonna come together, we’re gonna lift each other up. Here’s what I believe, and here’s the message I’m gonna leave you with for today, and then keep watching because this podcast is about to get reenergized. What I want you to understand is that. When we’re in darkness, our capacity to find light gets so much stronger.

This summer I went to Montana and we went to a Cavern. There’s a place called Lewis and Clark Caverns. It’s really, really cool. And of course, like any good cave tour, there’s gonna be a part where they will turn off the lights and you’ll get to experience absolute black out. There is no light whatsoever and it is really disorienting.

Our guide was talking about how people really will get lost, like they really don’t have a sense of where they are and like in relation to just everything. Like our bodies are not made to exist in pure darkness. But then he lit a match. He lit a candle. And before we had had all these big lights, lighting up the stairs, lighting up the caverns, lighting up all the formations, but he lit a match.

And it’s incredible how much that does to warm the room to give you direction to your eyes have adjusted to this blackness. And so this little bit of light feels so much brighter. So if you’re in a dark spot, if life’s feeling heavy, if it feels exhausting, this is the time where you have the capacity to hear more clearly, to see more clearly where there is light and you gotta look for it.

You have to look for it. You have to take action. You have to take steps towards finding light in your life. And even if things are going good, and actually, you know what? You’re pretty proud of yourself. You’re pretty proud of where you are, it’s also still okay to get some support, right? You don’t have to just ask for support.

When it’s hard and it’s dark, you can take. Things that fill your cup, you can take things that lift you up, and that’s just gonna be even more fun. So that’s what I have for you today. Number one, join me in Wrapped in Light. We are going to go every, every day in October, and I want you to number two, invite a friend.

Please invite a friend. Please share wrapped in light. It is absolutely free. Oh, and here’s the thing. I didn’t say I want to make this so much fun, so I’m not gonna tell you yet. I don’t even have it all planned yet, but I know there are gonna be some bonuses, there’s gonna be some gifts, you know, there might be some coaching happening, there might be opportunities.

But I love spoiling the people who are here in my community. So. If that’s your jam, if you like surprises, if you like prizes, if you like opportunities to continue to be in the presence of people who also are searching for light instead of sitting in the dark eating worms, come on in. I am so excited for this.

I’m excited for pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. I love talking about my babies, Lauren and River. I love talking about your babies. I love hearing about your babies. I love seeing your babies. It’s gonna be amazing. Let’s do this together. I’ll talk to you next time.