What happens when grief arrives uninvited? Not just from death, but from the quiet losses that reshape us after age 50. This conversation with author Laing Rikkers reveals how she transformed the sudden loss of her sister into a creative practice that led to deep healing, renewed purpose, and a choice to embrace joy.
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If you’re a woman over 50 who spent decades dealing with family, work, caregiving and managing expectations, this episode is for you. Laing and I talk about grief as more than death. It can be divorce, empty nest, health changes, career pivots, and the quiet loss of who you used to be. You’ll hear how simple creative rituals (like morning pages) can help you let go of what you’ve been holding, open your heart to what’s still possible, and reconnect to meaning without forcing “positivity.” Laing also offers a practical resilience framework so you can keep moving through hard seasons with steadiness and grace.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why grief in midlife often looks like identity loss (empty nest, divorce, changing roles), and why that’s real grief, not “being dramatic.”
- The “talk it, walk it, write it” approach to moving through heavy emotions and reconnecting with your inner wisdom.
- How creative expression (even if you don’t consider yourself “creative”) can be a powerful healing tool.
- The “sleep, eat, steep” foundation for building resilience through any transition.
- Why service can be healing. Not as self-abandonment, but as meaningful contribution that restores perspective and purpose.
About Our Guest
Laing Rikkers is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and executive coach with over 30 years of leadership experience, including two decades in private equity. Afer losing her younger sister suddenly in 2019, she channeled her grief into creative writing which became the book, “Morning Leaves: Reflections on Loss, Grief, and Connection.” Now a certified grief support specialist, Laing leads workshops and serves on the boards of Feeding San Diego and the Empowered Endings Foundation, helping caregivers and families navigate end-of-life challenges with compassion and practical support.
Connect with Laing
Website: laingrikkers.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laing-rikkers
Instagram: @morning_leaves_and_poetry
Book: Morning Leaves: Cultivating a Life of Beauty, Meaning and Joy (Second Edition coming March 2026)
Resources & Links Mentioned:
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – the creative recovery classic that introduced morning pages
- Empowered Endings Foundation – supporting caregivers and providers around end-of-life care
- The Foundation for Art and Healing – research and programs on creative expression and wellness
- NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) – mental health support and resources
- University of Wisconsin Grief Support Specialist Training
Design Your Life, Your Way – Next Steps:
Learn more about coaching, energy healing, and the L.O.V.E. Method™ at: gloriarand.com/offerings
Check out the Good Grief Women’s Retreat happening in June, 2026: goodgriefretreat.net
Discover your unique strengths for designing your next chapter: bit.ly/PersonalPowerQuiz
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Share this with a friend who’s navigating transition, reinvention, or a fresh start after 50.
Connect with me on LinkedIn @GloriaGraceRand to continue the conversation about midlife, meaning, and living on purpose.
Remember: Your mess is your message. You don’t need to have it all figured out to show up.
TRANSCRIPT: From Grief to Joy: Finding Purpose After Loss
Introduction: Meet Grief Support Specialist and Author Laing Rikkers
Gloria Grace Rand:
Joining us today is Laing Rikkers. She is an award-winning author, entrepreneur and executive coach with 30 plus years of leadership experience. Her book, Morning Reflections on Loss, Grief and Connection offers a moving, practical guide to finding resilience and meaning after loss. And we’re gonna, I’m gonna kind of dive into a bit of that today, especially that resilience piece of it. And I’m just trying to fix something over here on my, on my computer screen.
There we go. And now I’m greater. Without further ado, bring her up onto the stage and welcome you, Laing, to our podcast. Welcome.
Laing Rikkers:
Nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Well, I am, yeah, I’ve been looking forward to this conversation because we, we do have something in common. Not necessarily something exactly nice in common, but, but it’s a bond, I think, nonetheless, because we both, we both lost a sister and we both wound up writing a book as well. And I think, I mean, yours clearly came directly, directly from it. Mine was sort of, the idea came to me a couple months before my own sister passed and, and I wound up dedicating the book to her.
So. But I would love for you to share with our audience a little bit about. Yeah, about your journey and how, how this came about, you know, losing your sister and then how that wound up leading to the book.
The Sudden Loss of a Sibling: Laing’s Story of Grief and Shock
Laing Rikkers:
Absolutely. So I lost my sister very suddenly in December of 2019.
And she had been having some issues that were associated with sleep apnea. She hadn’t gotten treated, but I knew of her symptoms because I had been working in the field. And unfortunately she died very suddenly. And we were quite shocked. She was 46, she had a daughter.
And the good news was that it was before lockdown. And so we were all able to get together and mourn her and have a big service and that sort of thing. But then in March, as everyone experienced, we went into lockdown and entered that period that was really very frightening for everyone around the world with not knowing what was happening with COVID.
Using Morning Pages and The Artist’s Way for Grief Processing
And so the grief combined with the sort of existential that we were all experiencing and being at home more. I just found that I needed to do something creative and I read the, a classic book, the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and started doing something that she suggested every morning, which is writing morning pages, which is writing three pages before doing anything else. And you’re sort of in that liminal state between dreaminess and wakefulness.
And I started writing and it was a really cathartic experience for me and I hadn’t intended on writing a Book that was not something that I started out doing. But the combination of writing and spending a lot of time in nature and reflecting on everything that was going on led to poems that I originally typed up with the idea that I would give them to my children. I had been really aware that my sister had left too soon and that she had a daughter who I knew that she hadn’t been able to share everything as a mom. The girl was too young to have done that. And so I was thinking a lot about my kids, who were teenagers at the time.
And, you know, what. What had I not imparted to them? And so I typed up what I had written, and one thing led to another and sort of came together as this lovely book. And so it’s been a really nice journey for me.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s. I love the Artist’s way. I, I have that book, although I never got very far into it except for, like, the morning pages as well. So I, I, I don’t always do the full three pages, but I do try to get maybe at least two in. Depends on the size of journal I’m working with. (laughter)
Yeah, it’s like, you know, if it’s okay if it’s the wide rule. Yeah, I’m gonna do three full pages. If it’s the skinny… You know, maybe we can…(laughter)
She probably wouldn’t approve of that, but. Well, and actually, I’m gonna ask you this because, you know, even though I know we’re gonna get into some other stuff, but, but just of the creative process, did you find that if you do, like, get into, like, that third page, that that really is where things start to kind of come out. Because I know for me, sometimes it’s like. Sometimes it’s just kind of mundane things, the first page or so and then. But as I keep going, that’s when some interesting revelations come, Come through. Did you find anything that ever happened to you?
Finding Your Inner Voice Through Journaling and Creative Writing
Laing Rikkers:
Certainly I had that happen where the beginning would just be, I don’t know what I’m writing about. And, you know, you’re, Particularly when you’re starting, you really. I don’t know what to say. It feels awkward.
Yeah. And then by, you know. Well, and, and different days were different. I, I guess is. I found sometimes, really, when I was in the heart of writing that if I got very sort of still and quiet, that I could sort of hear something that I wanted to write.
So I, I learned to sort of listen to myself in a different way. And when I stopped the sort of chatter in my head and the judgment and, and all of those other Noises that can distract. I found that that clearest voice was able to come through some days, not every day, but. Yeah. Yeah.
That was a very special thing to be able to experience.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s a good. That’s a good reminder for us is that, you know, because I. I often, you know, I talk with my clients, and I’ve said this on the podcast before, that I. I always recommend journaling as a great way to be able to really connect with your higher self, but not every day is going to have those tremendous revelations someday. It isn’t going to be that, you know, and I might be just listing all the things that I need to get done today.
That’s absolutely my. Yeah. Yeah. So talk a little bit about, you know, because you mentioned, you know, it’s definitely. Yeah.
I can’t even, you know, imagine having to deal with, you know, the loss and then. Of course. Yeah. And then Covid, when the world shut down, and that was so much fun and dealing with that, too. But how, you know, like, in.
How has really. I know she. She was. We talked before. Before she was your younger sister.
How has this really. That loss impacted your life? You know, were there any, maybe even, like, surprising ways that. That you weren’t expecting?
Unexpected Silver Linings: How Grief Can Transform Your Perspective
Laing Rikkers:
Well, the whole thing was a surprise, for sure, and it has impacted my life. And like we were saying before we hopped on here, that there have been some really positive surprises as well as obviously all of the negative ones that you might expect that associated with that kind of loss, but the positive ones have been around focus and the idea of living today and that we need to do what we need to do now. And actually, the opening of my book, the.
The dedication is. This book is dedicated to Jenna, who abruptly left too early, cracked me open and whispered today, now. And I’ve really tried to inhabit that and be much more thoughtful about time and, you know, my ability to do things and hoping to have it mean more and be well and that sort of thing.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I’m. I’m hoping my. My cat is not being picked up on the microphone because he’s all of a sudden decided to. Decided to just. Yeah, to join the. Join the podcast.
It’s like, no, kid, go away. I love you. Yeah, this is not the time.
Financial Independence and Confidence: Challenges Women Over 50 Face
Well, you know, the focus of our podcast is really on helping women over 50 design their life their way. And we were even, kind of even talking a little bit about this at the beginning, too, before we came on. What do you think is the biggest hurdle that women definitely over 50 and probably maybe even a little bit even over 40 as well. Face. When it comes to living life on their terms, everybody’s situation is different.
Laing Rikkers:
But I think that having financial independence, I think about that quite a bit. I have a daughter who’s in college and talking to her about choosing paths that give her the power to make her own choices, and I think that that’s really important for women in particular. I think men often are culturally directed that way, but I’m not sure that historically women always have been. And so I think to have that sort of independence to make choices because we all have to pay the rent and food on the table and. And then also there’s an element of confidence and building upon skills and experience that one has developed over time and at a more spiritual sort of personal level, understanding who one is, what’s meaningful to them, how they want to express themselves, what they want to do and impart to the world is that’s real work.
I don’t think that. I don’t minimize that part of it as well. It’s one thing to want to do something, but knowing what that is is often the hardest part. And to get very clear about one’s goals and often doing it isn’t as hard once you know where you want to go.
From Private Equity to Purpose: A Midlife Career Transition Story
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. Do you think your book has served part of that purpose for you? A little bit?
Laing Rikkers:
Definitely. Definitely. I spent my career in business.
I worked in private equity for about 20 years and I have left that and I am now advising some small businesses and I’m on the boards of some non profits, so Feeding San Diego and another organization called the Empowered Endings Foundation. So I’m trying to put my time and energy into projects that I find really meaningful and important. You know, sort of. My husband has a term of, you know, is it of ultimate consequence? And so that’s definitely been, you know, important to me.
Morning Leaves Second Edition: Expanding the Conversation on Loss Beyond Death
And then my book itself, I actually have a second edition of the book that is coming out in March. The. It’s about. It’s the same core book, but it’s 20 pages longer. And it has a new preface which opens up the aperture on loss beyond just death loss to all of the kind losses that I think we’re experiencing culturally and particularly right now.
I think our identity as a country, the environment, you know, our sort of intergenerational losses we’re experiencing. And. And then it talks about the things that have been helpful to me sort of with 5 years experience looking backwards. And so the new. So the book is still called Morning Leaves.
But the new subtitle is Cultivating a life of Beauty, Meaning and Joy. So I like that. Yeah, it’s moving from, of course we all have loss and we all are dealing with our own types of grief, but that we also have ways to take care of ourselves and do the work to ultimately make the decision to choose joy. And I differentiate that from happiness, which I think is sort of sparkly and more fleeting but really true, deep joy that can come from living, you know, aligned with one’s values and taking care of oneself and things that, that matter to them.
Grief Beyond Death: Processing Loss of Identity, Relationships, and Life Transitions
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, I think that. And I, I think it’s so important that you do talk about that. Yeah. Grief isn’t just about losing a person because sometimes it’s about losing any, an identity, you know, you know, you know, empty nesters, you know, suddenly, you know, they’re, they were the person who was, you know, you know, especially if you’re, you’re a woman, you know, you were the mom taking care of the kids. Now your kids are off on your own and it’s like, oh, oh, you know, what am I going to do now? Or, or maybe you, you know, either, maybe lose a spouse, not to death, but to perhaps, you know, divorce.
And so now, again, it’s like now I’ve, I’ve read about, you know, what happens sometimes you lose friends because they were friends with the spouse maybe, and so now they don’t want to be associated with you because they still want to be friends with the spouse. And so now you’re going to have to go out and get whole new friends. So I, I notice when two things I want to get back to empowered endings. So remind me about that because I’m really, I, I loved what, what that is all about. I want to get involved in that.
But I also noticed that you and I, again, we have something. Not to mention the fact that also my sister passed in December as well, two days after Christmas. So there you go. But I noticed that you do grief retreats and I’m actually going to be hosting one myself in June. So I love that.
Again, we got the synchronicity here. So what prompted you to start doing that? And have you already held one? And if so, how was that experience? Because I’d love to know.
Just selfishly.
Grief Support Specialist Training: Finding Meaning in Helping Others Heal
Laing Rikkers:
Absolutely. So because of my book and the people that I was working with and what I found to be important from the people who helped me through grief, I ended up doing a grief support specialist training at the University of Wisconsin. And I just find that grief work is some of the most deeply satisfying work that I’ve ever done because you are with people who are at their most raw, most vulnerable, most open. And that to me is exciting.
I, I tire quickly of people’s affect and pretenses and other sort of things that can get in the way of meaningful conversation. And so I have, I’ve actually never done a full blown retreat. I have been a part of a number of series of workshops that participants come for a few hours either every month or every week. And I’m in the middle of a group right now and I just love doing it. I work with another grief specialist who’s been, she’s a death doula and has been in the space for a long time.
And I learn a lot from her and the way that she engages with people. And I learn a lot about myself and I learn a lot from the people who are participating. And everybody’s grief is different, but the opportunity to share and connect is a real honor and it’s very special. So fortunate to get to do it.
The Power of Grief Support Groups and Safe Spaces for Healing
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, that’s, that’s wonderful. Yeah, I, I, well, the, the, the first, Just a couple months after my sister passed, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a just a wise women retreat. It was just a one day thing, but they had these wonderful, like a talking circle and so everybody got around and, and, and I of course, broke down because it was just a couple months after my sister passed. But it was so, so wonderful to be held in, you know, in this container where people just, you know, understood and they respected me and I could, you know, it was okay to let my guard down and show my emotions. And I think that’s what’s, it’s so needed that we need to be there for people to be able to, you know, understand them and be with them wherever they are in that stage. Because you’re right, grief does go through some, you know, interesting phases and, and it can still sneak up on you when, just when you think maybe you, you’re kind of, you know, you’re starting to kind of come to terms with things and you’re, you’re, you know, you feel like, okay, you’re more of an even keel.
And then. Right. Another wave comes. Something. Yeah, something, something.
Who knows? You know, it’s either, it’s either a date or maybe you hear something on the radio, who knows? Or maybe it’s just, for whatever reason, it’s just like, whoa. Okay.
Using Poetry and Creative Expression in Grief Workshops
Laing Rikkers:
Yeah. So, yeah, the retreats that, or the workshops that I’ve been doing, we’ve been so this Is my book what it looks like? This is the current version, and it. It’s filled with poetry and art, and so we actually use the book as part of the framework for the discussion. That’s nice.
And then we give people time to write themselves. Some people draw or have other sort of creative forms of expression, and it’s. It’s a very nice way to organize the discussion and give people different entry points in, because some people are more guarded. Some people need a prompt to. To open them up and.
And get them started. And so we read some of the poems and it gives us also a starting point to talk about. Grief is the obvious sort of sadness and negative emotions, but it also drums up so many other emotions and so many reflections on ourselves that it’s good for people to realize that that is part of the grief process as well. To. You think about the.
The isolation or the envy or the anger or the. All of the other emotions that bubble up partly because of the door that’s been cracked open from.
The Complex Emotions of Grief: Anger, Isolation, and Unresolved Business
Gloria Grace Rand:
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I can imagine that, you know, losing your sister, you know, when she’s such a young age.
And I know when I was. I was 18 when my older brother passed, and it was. It was a sudden thing. He died in his sleep. So it was like, what?
And he’s only 33. And. And I was really not only. Not necessarily even angry at God, I was just angry at the situation, you know, and especially even when I got older and got married and had kids and. And.
And I’d be like, he would have been such a good uncle. So mad, you know, that. That you’re not around and like, you know, so, yeah, those types of emotions, I think, are. They’re normal.
Laing Rikkers:
So, you know, there’s unresolved business and.
Yeah, yeah, that too. My sister, sometimes my parents are both still alive and getting older and needing help, and where are you? You’re supposed to be here to help me with it. Yeah, exactly. So it does come out.
You know, sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s deeper things that you didn’t even know were still packed under there. And so it’s. But that’s. As you said in the beginning, that’s one of the silver linings to get some of it up and out and to use, you know, I’ve.
Walk It, Talk It, Write It: Practical Tools for Moving Through Grief
I found, you know, to use exercise as an important way to sort of the energy to be able to talk about it, find either friends or counselors to be able to address it with creativity. So, you know, I. I call it talk. It Walk it, write it. Those are sort of the activities that help to move the energy, the emotion, the experience so that then you can integrate it and make sense of it and hopefully find some of the, the silver lining.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, absolutely. And I was going to ask you about, you know, some practical ways to use, you know, simple creative rituals to, to process emotions and spark clarity. So, yeah, so you mentioned, you know, definitely, obviously writing is one. Are there any others besides, you know, speak it, talk it?
The Foundation for Art and Healing: How Creativity Supports Grief Recovery
Laing Rikkers:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, there’s an organization called the foundation for Art and Healing and they have some interesting programs and materials, a lot of research that came out of the Harvard School of Public Health.
And they show that if you do something creative and it can be drawing, writing, knitting, I mean, it really any form of creative expression, and then one ultimately has what they call an artifact. So you have your piece of art and then you’ve gone through this sort of flow state of creating it, and then you have it, and then you have it to share with somebody else. And a lot of times you’re able to express something that maybe words can’t quite capture. And the opportunity to share it with someone else creates the connection. And the connection is very critical to the healing.
And so I think that art for sure, and creativity and it could be dancing, it could be singing. I think depending on, you know, the inclination of the person, it could be a lot of different things. It’s a very important and helpful way to take all of the energy, roll it around, pull it apart, put it back together and then create something new that’s generative and positive and forward looking. It’s a very valuable exercise.
Choosing the Right People to Share Your Grief With: Potential Pitfalls
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, I, I definitely can relate to that. And I love doing all sorts of different creative things myself. But what, and I kind of have an idea about it, but I want to see what you, what you think about it. What potential pitfalls might there be for someone, especially in sharing something with somebody? What, what do you think might be something that maybe somebody needs to be just kind of mindful of?
Laing Rikkers:
Well, not everybody is comfortable talking about grief and loss. And so I think choosing the right person. And it could be somebody who’s gone through it before. It could be somebody who’s professional. It also could just be a matter of testing the waters and seeing if somebody has an appetite for it that particular day or moment.
And I think that when one is vulnerable and raw, they share a lot. And you want to be careful that who you are sharing with also is trustworthy with your most intimate and most delicate parts of yourself. And so that’s probably the biggest risk. I, I think me. Well, I think really the biggest risk is not sharing at all, getting isolated and thinking that what one is going through, you know, that you were the only person, that’s probably the biggest mistake.
And yeah, the finding, the ability to find other people and feel seen and heard is critical.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, so good. Yep. Okay. That was, it was kind of what I said, what I was suspecting, but it was good to hear somebody else confirm it for me.
Redesigning Life After Loss: Making Meaningful Career and Life Changes
If you decided to redesign your life, your way today, what, if anything, would you change?
Laing Rikkers:
Well, I am doing it. So I think about, I think about this question a lot. I, as I mentioned, I had been in private equity for 20 years and I’ve left that. And so, so I’m in this transition year or two of where do I really want to put my time and energy and what’s important to me. And certainly putting out the second edition of my book and having the opportunity to talk to people about things that resonate for them in terms of their life, their losses has been one of the most meaningful things.
Empowered Endings Foundation: Supporting Caregivers Through End-of-Life Care
You had also mentioned that you wanted to talk about Empowered Endings. That is a place where I’ve been putting quite a bit of my energy. It is a non profit that focuses on caregivers and providers around end of life subjects. So it could be anything from dementia, aging and then all the way to end of life as in death. And it’s really caring for the caregivers and ensuring that they have resources, best practices, education, community, and that they are able to take care of themselves because their work is taxing and draining.
And so to ensure, you know, we’re talking about, you know, end of life care, physicians and nurses, hospice workers and death doulas and caregivers in the home and family members, all, you know, dealing with different pieces of this puzzle. But there I saw some number in paper the other day that there are more caregivers of elderly than there are of children in the country right now. And so it’s, you know, a big, it’s a lot of the population and a lot of people really have questions. They don’t know where to go, they don’t know what choices exist. They don’t know where to get good information.
And so Empowered Endings is working to create a national network of people and resources that are where people can turn to, to get information and become part of a community around the subject that matters to them.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, I love that. And actually it does make sense because baby boomers were this huge generation and they are retiring every day. You know, there’s statistics about how many of them are there. And, you know, or even the Generation Jones, which I’ve learned that, that, that technically, I guess, is what I’m.
I’m not strictly. I’m not a baby boomer, even though I used to excel at Trivial Pursuit, the baby boomer edition.
But, but I am that. Just that like, kind of tail end and not quite the, the next one, whatever that is. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
The Value of Hospice Care: A Personal Experience with End-of-Life Support
But, yeah, I think that’s so important because, yeah, it’s. I. When my sister was going through her cancer journey, she. I live in Florida, she lived in Arizona. And so I would go out there as often as I could to be with her when she’s going through the treatments, but I wasn’t always able to do it because I had.
Was raising two kids at the time, had my business and a husband. But I would get periodically, I would get a phone call from one of her friends going, when are you coming out again? Can you come out soon, please? You know, we love Michaela, but we need a break. And you know, and, and they were just, you know, she wasn’t married, she didn’t have any kids, so she was relying on either her friends or me to help her, you know, with doctor’s appointments and, and, and, and just even making sure she was eating and taking her.
Her medications and things like that. So, yeah, it’s rough. And I was so grateful that we did have hospice support in the last, I guess, last two months, because they’re wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people. And so when I saw that organization, I was like, this sounds wonderful. And I’m definitely right up my alley and want to see how else I can.
What I can do to support them as well, because I think it’s so needed.
Laing Rikkers:
Yeah. And it’s just going to be continuing to be necessary as we go forward.
Building Resilience: Sleep, Eat, Steep – Foundational Elements for Coping with Loss
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. Is there anything else that I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to share with our listeners today regarding either grief or loss or, you know, just dealing with transitions in life that goes by.
Laing Rikkers:
At the end of my new book, I talk about some things that I think are really important for our ongoing resilience, because like it or not, loss is coming at all of us. And so there are sort of three foundational elements that I think are really important. Sleep. I think we all are aware of the importance of that and just how much better we handle things when we are well rested. And it can be hard to get good sleep when one is dealing with traumatic Stressful, difficult things, but to really make that a priority and focus also.
So I call it sleep, eat, steep, so sleeping, then eating. And under the umbrella of eating, I’m actually talking about sort of everything that we put into our body, of course, healthy food, balanced food. Not letting loss become an excuse to, you know, only eat ice cream or also not to drink too much, not to numb ourselves with other kinds of food, drugs, alcohol. And it’s. I like to think of, you know, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and if you start adding other substances, it makes the line longer and it makes it harder to, to get through.
And so it’s very tempting. And I understand, you know, that second glass of wine or whatever it is, but it, the more one can be thoughtful about taking care of themselves in that way, I think is helpful.
The Role of Spiritual Practice and Meditation in Grief Recovery
And then the third foundational one I call steep. And that’s depends on the person, a spiritual practice, a meditation, a religion, but to really lean into it and, and to be able to put themselves in a greater context and one of a bigger universe. And I think it’s very helpful when one is sort of in the dark hole of a, of a tough situation.
So I think those three things are the foundation. And then the eat, sleeps, I mean, sorry. And then the walk it, talk it, write it, which we talked about. And then I think the final piece that really helps one come out of it is serving others and paying it forward and being able to do things to make life better for other people. It gives us meaning and purpose and a sense of consequence.
And so I, I encourage people who are struggling a little bit to look at ways that they can get outside of themselves and help someone else in. It often changes the perspective of it.
Finding Purpose Through Serving Others: How Helping Heals
Gloria Grace Rand:
Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. Because when you can put your focus on helping someone else, really it really does, it changes your focus. And also sometimes it can, you know, depending on who you’re helping, might even give you perspective.
Like, okay, well maybe my life isn’t quite as horrible as I thought it was and you know, this other person is really going through something and if I can help them, you know, that’s really good. And I would just actually add, because I do love the eat sleep state. But I think the other thing, and it’s something that you are providing, and I know I do as well, I think is support. So whether that is one on one, whether it is joining a group, you know, being in a community of people who are going through what you’re going through, there’s all kinds of places to find that, you know, there’s, there’s meetup, there’s Facebook, you know, even though sometimes it drives me crazy. But there are lots of groups there.
But knowing that you don’t have to go through this alone or you can, you know, there’s organizations online that you can, you know, that you can reach out to for support. One I, I really believe in is nami. It’s a national association, something for, for mental health. Anyway. And you know, because, because sometimes you can, you know, you know, grief or, or just again, even through transition it can be, you know, bring maybe not necessarily going to full blown depression, but it can be something that can be strong enough that you, you know, don’t feel you have to go through this alone.
There’s, there’s resources out there.
Laing Rikkers:
I completely agree. It’s. And professional resources are as you say, there are lots of way shapes and forms of counselors and therapists and you know, all the way to psychiatrists. But also as you say, a good support group or even a great friend who.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Absolutely. Well, I think the connection piece is, as we were saying earlier, is critical to the healing. So I, I think you’re absolutely right.
Where to Find Laing Rikkers: Book Tour, Website, and Social Media
Yeah. Cool. Well, this has been a pleasure and we, time has flown by but I would like to have you share with our listeners if there’s someplace that they want to get some more information from you. Maybe they want to check out one of your work workshops. Where can people learn more about Lang?
Laing Rikkers:
Well, probably the best place is my website, so it’s Laing Rikkers.com that’s one of the nice things about having an unusual name is you can get like your website and your gmail and so langrekers.com it has. I, I’m very active on LinkedIn and Instagram in particular, but I would love for people to contact me from there.
I have an events list and my book as I mentioned, is coming out in March and so I’m going to be doing a book tour and so I will have all of the dates and locations listed there. So people around the country would love for them to come and introduce themselves. So appreciate everyone reaching out when they can.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Awesome. All right, well, thank you very much for joining us today.
I really did appreciate getting to know you a little bit better and look forward to, to continuing to connect with you on LinkedIn because that’s where, where I’m hanging out. Instagram, I, I don’t know, can’t get in there. So I try but it’s like no problem.
Laing Rikkers:
But I, I really appreciate being included. And I’m looking forward to staying in touch.
Gloria Grace Rand:
All right, take care. Thanks. Bye. Bye.
