Ep #23: Memory Loops of Grief and Death Anniversaries

Hi there, and welcome to The Young Widow Podcast. I’m Britany, your host, and as always, I’m so grateful you’re here with me.

This week has been a really emotional one for me. It marks five years since my husband passed, and my brain seems to be stuck on that number — five. Five years. It feels like it should be a lifetime, but at the same time, it feels like I lost him yesterday. I’ve caught myself reliving so many memories from five years ago, like a loop I can’t quite get out of.

I talked about this with some of my widow coaching clients earlier this week, and I realized how important it is to share this with all of you. Today, we’re going to dive into:

• What implicit versus explicit memories are and how they play a role in grief.
• What’s happening in our brain to create those relentless memory loops.
• A little about timeline grief — the new part of your brain that processes grief as time passes.
• And finally, why these things combined make anniversaries feel so raw, even years later, like you’re back in those first few days of loss.

So let’s jump in and get started.