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December 27, 2025 3 mins

Today's convo is about a specific kind of holiday pain after divorce...
 the Christmas cards knowing exactly how to **send you.

The smiling families.
The matching outfits.
The quiet comparison that starts to creep in and makes you feel like you no longer belong to the world you used to be part of.

In this episode, Joy and I talk about:

  • Why Christmas cards trigger comparison so deeply after divorce
  • How performance culture keeps women disconnected from themselves
  • The grief of rebuilding your life in truth while others appear “settled”
  • Why comparison pulls you off your own healing path
  • What it means to shift from me vs. them to me vs. me
  • Why becoming yourself can feel lonelier before it feels better

We also offer a simple, creative practice for working with the cards themselves...not from bitterness, but from transformation (well maybe a little from bitterness) as a way to reclaim your power and your perspective.

This episode isn’t about pretending the comparison doesn’t hurt.
 It’s about choosing not to let it delay your becoming.

If the Christmas cards have been making you feel like an outsider this season, come hang with us!

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

Or stay with us here today — and come back tomorrow.

Capacity builds in connection. Hugs ❤️

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 letting go.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Hi, love.
Welcome to Dear Divorce Diary,the podcast helping divorcees go
beyond talk therapy to processyour grief, find the healing you
crave, and build back yourconfidence.
I'm your host, Don Wiggins, atherapist, coach, integrative
healer, and divorcee.
Join me for a fresh approach tohealing grief and building your

(01:37):
confidence after divorce.
Welcome to day six of the 12days of divorce Christmas, or
the 12 days of becoming heragain.
Today we are talking about theChristmas card spiral, where you

(02:00):
see everybody's curatedperformance-based posturing, and
they're all smiling in theircute coordinated outfits, and
you are feeling like crapbecause that is not how your
life looks today, and it feelscompletely out of your control,
and you feel like you don't knowwhere you belong, and like an

(02:21):
outsider in the world of likenormal family life.
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.

(02:54):
You can find more atmycoachdawn.com
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