The Creative Grief Journey

Dawn Renee Bova
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to the Creative Grief Journey Podcast.Each soul-led podcast offers tools and stories to help you navigating loss through creativity, community, and sacred practice.  Hosted by intuitive artist and grief recovery expert Dawn Renee Bova, this podcast explores how creativity, nature, and rituals can gently transform your darkest moments into light.  Together, we explore love, life, and loss—with courage, color, and compassion.

  1. 3d ago

    How Can I Dream Again

    The speaker explores how grief affects both sleeping dreams and “living dreams,” sharing personal stories of losing her father in an automobile accident and later her son, Brad, and how these losses altered her relationship with dreaming. She recounts a vivid, comforting dream Brad’s friend shared—seeing Brad on a rainy Florida beach saying, “Tell everybody it’s beautiful here, and I’ll see you later”—and explains psychological reasons dreams can change during grief, including disrupted REM sleep, stress hormones, trauma, and emotional processing, while also describing dreams as potentially spiritual and mysterious. Shifting to life dreams, she describes how grief can shrink motivation and joy, and encourages rebuilding purpose through focus, vision boards, journaling, and meaningful action, including her work with Ohio CAN (Change Addiction Now) supporting early recovery. She closes with reflective questions to help viewers reconnect with hope, creativity, health, environment, relationships, meaning, and future possibilities, and invites people to join her community, retreats, and coaching. 00:00 Grief And Dreams 00:49 Personal Loss Stories 01:47 A Comforting Dream 03:18 Why Dreams Change 04:42 Spiritual Meaning Of Dreams 05:54 Awake Life Dreams 06:57 Purpose From Pain 08:58 Focus And Attraction 11:46 Write These Questions 12:35 Joy And Aliveness 13:04 Creativity Prompts 14:12 Body And Energy 15:01 Home And Environment 15:55 Relationships And Support 16:48 Meaning And Legacy 17:14 Future Vision Questions 17:39 Closing Encouragement 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    19 min

  2. May 20

    I Stopped Living After Loss; Here's How I Came Back

    How grief can pull you into survival mode, making you stop dreaming, planning, and caring for yourself, and argues that healing isn’t “moving on” but coming back to yourself without toxic positivity or denying the pain.  How grief affects the nervous system and brain—fatigue, depression, guilt about joy, memory issues, decision fatigue, increased cortisol, low dopamine—and emphasize that neglecting yourself isn’t laziness but overwhelm.  This episode offers practical “baby steps” and bigger steps to rebuild identity and safety through movement/strength training, decluttering, creativity, nourishing routines, community, and retreats, and discusses visualization, neuroplasticity, and intentional action (including a personal story of manifesting a Florida home). Inviting you to a day-long Younique Wellness retreat in Bellevue, Ohio focused on creativity, nourishment, nervous system regulation, and community. 00:00 When Grief Erases You 00:41 Coming Back to Yourself 02:03 Why Self Care Stops 03:37 The Healing Pivot 04:56 Tiny Habits That Rebuild 06:57 Creativity and Flow State 07:52 Manifestation With Action 11:13 Dream Home Visualization Story 13:58 Let Yourself Desire Again 15:10 Baby Steps vs Big Leaps 17:45 Retreat and Community Healing 19:24 You Still Get to Live 20:15 Final Goodbye and Subscribe 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    21 min

  3. May 13

    The Exhaustion Nobody Warns You About After Grief

    Dawn explains that grief affects the body as well as emotions, often causing deep exhaustion, heaviness, brain fog, pain, sleep and appetite changes, gut issues, immune crashes, and nervous system and hormonal disruption. Drawing on personal experiences after losing her son and later a father, she describes “grief brain,” difficulty thinking, and how society’s pressure to “keep going” conflicts with a body stuck in survival mode. She challenges common beliefs such as needing to be strong or that time alone heals, emphasizing restoration and rest. Small, consistent actions—journaling, making the bed, stretching, walking, sunlight, cooking, music, and simple creative practices like doodling—can build momentum, support dopamine and endorphin release, and help move grief through the body. There is a free Creative Grief Journey Skool community, journal prompts, and upcoming retreats in Belize and Ohio. 00:00 Grief Lives in the Body 01:41 Physical Signs and Survival Mode 03:13 Grief Brain and Trauma Fog 04:49 Symptoms Checklist and Nervous System 07:44 Grief Myths and Permission to Rest 08:57 Tiny Habits and Creative Healing 12:41 Self Soothing and Momentum 14:25 Community Support and Retreat Tools 16:16 Nature’s Pace of Healing 18:16 Closing Encouragement and Share 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    20 min

  4. May 7

    Grief Doesn't Have to Destroy You, Here's What I Did

    In this episode, the host shares a personal shift in her grief journey, describing grief and life as ongoing works in progress and suggesting grief can be a catalyst for joy, abundance, freedom, and contentment. Drawing from Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, she outlines three steps—ask, believe, and receive—and explains how vision boards and detailed visualization (including her goal of owning a Mercedes-Benz) support manifestation alongside consistent action. She recounts a difficult week of missing Brad and how returning to gratitude, creative projects, and supportive, like-minded people helped her shift. Examples include receiving a $500 escrow refund, improved health through consistent weight training and nutrition, new job opportunities, finding a lost iPad, and booking a better-paid wedding portrait. She encourages morning routines, journaling, gratitude lists, and joining her Skool community or seven-week Creative Grief Journey Method program. 00:00 A Shift in Grief 01:37 Finding Joy in Ordinary Moments 02:24 Happiness Is Inside 04:07 Law of Attraction Basics 05:36 Visualization and Vision Boards 06:47 A Grief Dip and Reset 08:15 Programs and Community Support 09:07 Life Happens for Me 10:42 Money Miracle Example 12:25 Vision Board Tour 13:18 Consistency Creates Change 15:08 Jobs and New Opportunities 16:51 Contentment and Unexpected Wins 19:46 Letting Go to Move Forward 20:32 Applying This to Grief 23:21 Daily Routines to Shift Energy 24:47 Closing Invitation and Goodbye 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    26 min

  5. Apr 29

    Can't Sleep After Loss, You're Not Alone

    The speaker, a nurse practitioner who has experienced multiple traumatic losses, discusses how grief commonly disrupts sleep through rumination, intrusive thoughts, stress and hormone changes, noting research that up to 91% of people with complicated grief have sleep problems and that untreated insomnia can worsen depression, anxiety and PTSD. They recommend cognitive behavioral therapy and share practical sleep-hygiene strategies: consistent bedtimes, reducing screen time and moving phones away, keeping the room cool, creating a wind-down ritual, using calming music or guided meditation, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, limiting caffeine after noon and avoiding alcohol. They also mention options like occasional melatonin, potassium, essential oils, herbal teas, journaling (including dream journaling), mantras, and possibly weighted blankets, emphasizing persistence, seeking therapy or short-term medical help if needed, and finding support through community and lifelines. 00:00 Grief And Sleepless Nights 01:48 Why Grief Disrupts Sleep 03:49 Help Options And Therapy 05:06 Bedtime Routine Basics 07:11 Music Breathing Meditation 09:24 Caffeine Alcohol And Relaxation 10:57 Natural Sleep Supports 13:52 Journaling And Support 17:04 Mantras And Final Encouragement 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    18 min

  6. Apr 22

    Grief Hacks to Cope When You Feel Stuck

    The speaker shares a recent experience of feeling immobilized by grief despite trying coping strategies, emphasizing that “vegging out” isn’t failure and that grief isn’t something to fix but to manage through normal ups and downs. They introduce practical five-minute “grief hacks” that can be used anytime and explain why they work: breath-work (including longer exhales and box breathing) to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and vagus nerve; writing it out (handwriting preferred) to engage the brain, reduce amygdala reactivity, and declutter thoughts; body movement/dancing to release stored emotions and regulate the nervous system; Healing Touch with hand-over-heart and supportive mantras to self-soothe and release oxytocin; stepping outside/grounding in nature to reduce cortisol and reconnect; and creativity (drawing, doodling, coloring, bilateral stimulation) to lower stress and activate reward and flow states. They also suggest gratitude or spiritual rituals, building a morning routine, and joining their free Skool community with journal prompts. 00:00 Feeling Stuck in Grief 01:21 Unhelpful Coping Habits 02:50 Five Minute Reset Plan 04:42 Breathwork for Calm 07:24 Journal It Out 12:38 Move Your Body 14:47 Healing Touch Self Soothe 16:56 Step Outside and Ground 19:06 Creativity as Medicine 21:41 Gratitude and Wrap Up 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    24 min

  7. Apr 15

    Turning Loss into Levity: Ebrace the Creative Grief Journey

    The host returns after a pause and explains stepping away due to feeling overwhelmed and taking a stressful full-time, on-call job that they later resigned from.  After leaving, new aligned opportunities emerged, including joining a retreat in November in Belize and collaborating with Younique Wellness in Bellevue, Ohio on potential art classes and a day-long retreat, alongside deeper self-healing through a creatives group with Garrin Ase, revisiting The Artist’s Way, daily exercise, and making hearts for The Great Mother March.  Drawing from major losses—her father and her son Bradley—she emphasizes grief as non-linear, advocates creativity, conversation, and simple daily “grief lessons,” encourages asking others for notes and memories, and previews a seven-week grief recovery program plus a free 30-day journaling email prompt.  00:00 Welcome Back Update 00:54 Why I Paused 01:09 Quitting the Job 02:06 New Retreat Opportunities 02:32 Wellness Center Collabs 03:43 Investing in Healing 04:38 Free Journaling Challenge 05:21 Art Hearts Practice 06:29 Discipline and Guidance 07:13 My Losses and Why 08:59 Podcast Is Back 10:04 Grief Lessons and Community 11:13 Brad's Memory Book 11:50 Ask for Support 14:54 Season Preview 15:57 Meta Glasses Tech 16:40 Final Thanks 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    16 min

  8. 12/10/2025

    How to Turn Setbacks into Comebacks

    Welcome to the Creative Grief Journey podcast, hosted by Dawn Renee Bove. In this episode, Dawn sits down with John Kippen, an entrepreneur, magician, coach, and author who shares his powerful story of overcoming adversity. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002, the surgery left him with facial paralysis and led him into a 12-year period of hiding. Rediscovering his passion for magic, John's facial difference became his superpower, transforming his life and inspiring others. Alongside discussing the importance of becoming one's own advocate in the medical system, John emphasizes how creativity and authentic storytelling can facilitate healing and connection. Featuring insights into his successful documentary co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and his philosophy on empowerment, this episode is a testament to the transformative power of creativity and resilience. 00:00 Welcome to the Creative Grief Journey 00:35 The Power of Creativity and Community 03:17 Introducing John Kippen: A Story of Resilience 04:34 John's Journey: From Diagnosis to Rediscovery 10:36 The Turning Point: Embracing Magic and Storytelling 14:03 Empowering Others Through Magic 20:09 The Award-Winning Documentary 22:53 John's Mission: Empowerment Coaching 25:40 Final Thoughts and Takeaways Check out John Kippen: johnkippen.com Coaching available at:  kippencoaching.com 🔆 Transform you grief, Start a 30 days journal habit! Grab your 30 day journal prompts HERE Dawn's Info: Facebook: Dawn Renee Bova IG:  https://www.instagram.com/dawnreneebova/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeARTworkbyDawn Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-renee-bova-304049239 Email: dawn@dawnbovaart.com 🌀 Join the Creative Grief Journey Group for Emotional Empowerment...and support on Skool 🌟HERE 🌟 ✅ Join my email list and don't miss a thing! HERE

    30 min
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About

Welcome to the Creative Grief Journey Podcast.Each soul-led podcast offers tools and stories to help you navigating loss through creativity, community, and sacred practice.  Hosted by intuitive artist and grief recovery expert Dawn Renee Bova, this podcast explores how creativity, nature, and rituals can gently transform your darkest moments into light.  Together, we explore love, life, and loss—with courage, color, and compassion.

Information

  • Creator
    Dawn Renee Bova
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    110
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Creative Grief Journey
  • Show Website
    The Creative Grief Journey