EP.128 - Reshma Kearney - "Give Yourself Grace"

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In this deeply moving episode, we sit with Reshma — a mother of three, widow, and mindfulness coach — as she opens up about the unimaginable loss of her husband to suicide. Together, we explore what it means to stay present in the deepest pain, to mother through heartbreak, and to speak honestly about mental health in a world that often whispers when it should be listening.

Reshma doesn’t offer tidy answers — instead, she offers her heart. She shares what it was like to feel unsurprised by her husband’s choice to leave this world, how important it was that “everyone waited” for her, and the truth she’s come to hold: “My kids just need my heart.”

We talk about the cultural silence that often surrounds grief — especially in South Asian families — where “if the problem can’t be fixed with food, then we just don’t talk about it.” We reflect on the heavy question so many suicide loss survivors carry: “You have all the things. Why would you not want to be here?” And how, sometimes, the most radical thing we can do is “slow down, pay attention, and shut up.”

As a mindfulness coach, Reshma also shares how ancestral practices of presence and stillness became her compass — not to escape pain, but to move with it. In a world where mindfulness has been reduced to buzzwords and apps, she brings it home to its roots — and reminds us it was never a trend, but a way of being.

This episode honors Children’s Mental Health Month by asking what kids really need during loss, and why healing doesn’t follow a schedule — “grief has no timeline. It has no finish point.”

Reshma reminds us it’s not about big leaps, but small steps. And that the most loving thing we can do — for ourselves and each other — is to check in. Period.

Instagram: reshmakearney

Website: reshmakearney.com

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In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.