Ep. 297 - Day 3: Going to the Holiday Party Alone After Divorce | How to Prepare Without Losing Yourself

Welcome to Day 3 of the 12 Days of Divorce Christmas...also known as the 12 Days of Becoming Her Again.

Today we’re talking about one of the hardest moments after divorce: going to the holiday party alone.

The explaining.
The questions you don’t want to answer.
The way your body tightens when you walk into a room where you used to belong as part of a couple.

For many women, this isn’t just social anxiety — it’s identity grief.
 You were someone’s wife.
 You had a role.
 You had a place.

And now you’re figuring out who you are without rehearsing strength or pretending you’re fine.

In this episode, Joy and I walk you through how to prepare for being single at the holiday party in a way that actually supports your nervous system — instead of leaving you depleted before you even arrive.

We talk about:

• Why your brain naturally rehearses what you don’t want to happen
• How that rehearsal increases anxiety and self-protection
• A simple journaling practice to shift from fear to preference
• How to decide how you want to feel — without trying to change other people
• Practical grounding tools you can use before and during the event
• What to reach for when you feel yourself starting to disappear

This episode isn’t about performing confidence.
 It’s about staying in Self.

You don’t need the night to go perfectly.
 You just need a way to stay connected to you while you’re there.

And we’ll walk you through that — step by step.

🎄 ABOUT THE 12 DAYS OF DIVORCE CHRISTMAS (WITH CTA)

The 12 Days of Divorce Christmas is a daily, nervous-system-first series created to support you through one of the hardest seasons after divorce.

✨ Days 1, 2, and 9 are available on the public feed.
✨ The remaining days — including deeper grounding tools and preparation practices — are available inside Dear Divorce Diary Premium.

Inside Premium, you’ll get:

• Full access to all 12 days of this series
• Episodes that help you regulate in real time (bathroom breaks, car moments, before-you-walk-in tools)
• Monthly premium workshops for grief, anxiety, loneliness, and identity rebuilding after divorce

If this episode helped you feel more prepared, more steady, or less alone — the rest of the series is there to keep supporting you through the moments that don’t get talked about out loud.

Join Dear Divorce Diary Premium to access the full 12 Days of Divorce Christmas.

Or stay with us here today — and know you’re not doing this wrong.

You’re learning how to do it as you.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCoachDawn

Instagram: (@dawnwiggins)

Instagram: (@coachtiffini)

On the Web: https://www.mycoachdawn.com

A podcast exploring the journey of life after divorce, delving into topics like divorce grief, loneliness, anxiety, manifesting, the impact of different attachment styles and codependency, setting healthy boundaries, energy healing with homeopathy, managing the nervous system during divorce depression, understanding the stages of divorce grief, and using the Law of Attraction and EMDR therapy in the process of building your confidence, forgiveness and l

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (01:15):
Hi love, this is Dawn, and you're listening to
Dear Divorce Diary with my coachDawn, where we explore the
post-divorce life and you, thewoman who lives it.
We cover everything from traumaduring and after divorce to
feeling like a stranger in yourown life and the new frontier of
life as a single woman.
Cozy in for the conversationsyou've been longing to have

(01:39):
about this new life.
Welcome to day three of the 12days of Divorce Christmas.
AKA the 12 Days of Becoming Heragain.
Today we are addressing what todo when you have to go single to

(01:59):
the holiday party.
Oh Lordy B, there are that wholescenario is fraught, right?
Like maybe it's the first timeyou're out on the scene single,
and there's feels like there'sso much explaining to do.
And maybe you already had socialanxiety, but it was easier when

(02:19):
you had a person.
And maybe you just are feelingall the feelings, and it's just
really hard to be in the holidayspirit.
Like maybe well, there's amillion reasons why being single
at the holiday party is hard.
And today we're gonna walk youthrough how to prepare for that.

(02:41):
You can access the full episodeby becoming a premium
subscriber, which is just fivedollars a month.
Scroll down to the show notesand click the link where you'll
get your very own individualizedRSS feed for your podcast app.

(03:08):
You can find more atmycoachdawn.com