Empty Nest Support
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Natalie Caine is the founder and facilitator of Empty Nest Support Services. She received her master’s degree and board of medical examiner’s license in speech and language therapy, in 1972. After 15 years of offering therapy and workshops to Los Angeles Unified School District, she opened a private practice to serve her community. Natalie began Empty Nest Support Services which grew into a new career and business. Empty Nest Support Services helps anticipating empty nesters and empty nest families through the joys and challenges. |
Honoring Your Empty Nest Feelings
Empty today. Sad, worried, lonely, achy, anxious, immobile. Let just a little light in through the pain.
Change always happens. In the center is the paradox of carrying hope and crying. Grieving is real. We just aren’t use to paradoxes. Words like, both are true, and this is also how I feel, aren’t communicated very often.
We weren’t taught to have a range of feelings and to honor all of them as value. All of the feelings build our heart muscles and add wonderment…
Put Your Needs First and You’ll Create Real Bonds that Heal
Over and over I am reminded that what gets us through painful times is a friend.
We know that, but when we are hurting we isolate. We don’t pick up the phone and ask a friend for help. We want to be the strong one.
So I suggest you make a list of who you feel uplifted around? Who are you yourself with? Who is cheering for your happiness?
Most of us play the role of supporter. We feel vulnerable when we reveal ourselves. Surprise is, we become closer…
Mother May I, Empty Nesters Bloom
Isn’t it great that we, as empty nesters, don’t have to ask permission anymore? And isn’t it great that we learned to be thoughtful and think before we act? I wonder if our children feel that newness of deciding and thinking away from home.
What Will You Do When Your Home Becomes an Empty Nest?
We all know the day is coming, whether that day is the beginning of empty nest or the day our adult children are home for a visit and then leave.
Is there prevention for sorrow? I believe from all the experiences I have with change and tears, that the answer is to practice being with what is.
Sorrow is a part of life. Change will happen. Spring will bloom. Winter will chill. As the plum blossoms in my neighborhood are fully bursting on top of trees next to the clusters…
Empty Nester Springs into Something New
During our third phone consultation, my client, Kate talked about how she was managing her free time as an empty nester. She is 56 and single, with two kids living thousands of miles away.
Kate wanted to figure out how to raise chickens on her property, but she didn’t know what to do with all the eggs if she did have chickens. Long story short… she connected with a neighbor that she never knew before, which led to chicks, eggs, and making egg salad sandwiches for teachers.…
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Empty Nesters Clip Clopping Along with Love |
When our precious ones were younger, we were dashing. Now they are still precious, but we aren’t dashing towards them. Love, what is it you are dashing towards and what is OK for you to simply sit and ponder? My empty nester friends, who are single, want to sleep through the day and night of Valentine’s Day. Married ones long for surprise. All of them remember and love the laced hearts they made with their children, as well as, the pink iced sugar… |
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2008 Empty Nesters Open the Window to Personal Growth
What does feeling great mean to you? At this stage in our lives, we re-define what matters to us. I hear from the parents I work with that they all want to feel happy, to find new meaning, and to enjoy healthy relationships with their adult children. That would make them feel great about their lives.
Empty Nester’s Inventory of Core Values
This empty nester’s inventory of core values gives you a way to connect that is not the ordinary connection. It is fun to check in with yourself and your partner in new ways. This is not about what you should do or who is right. This valuable activity is about getting to know yourself and your partner in an updated way.
Coaching Yourself During This Major Life Change
Many questions of wonderment and pain are normal in this major life change. When you hear yourself ask: WHAT SHOULD I DO...First notice what you have been doing when that situation occurs.
Sometimes You Just Feel an Underlying Sadness
Sometimes you just feel an underlying sadness. It is not predictable. It just shows up as a time to cry a little , to remember.
Empty Nester, What do I Want to be When I Grow Up
I am an empty nester who loves being a mom. I don’t love my career anymore and now I have to figure out “What DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP?”
Coping with the quiet house and no fussing over meals, and soccer games is a big hole for me. That is just part of the darkness. I was on committees at her school and did morning car pool when she was younger.
How to Gather Ideas for a Positive New Path Without Children
Send five post cards to friends just to touch in and feel connected with this empty nest vacancy. Take a walking meditation with a “seed” of an idea and let nature feed your idea with thoughts like, I could do that, or I could add that, or I could let so and so help me with this part.
Get some magazines and tear out some of your favorite words, pictures and glue them down with no order and no theme in mind . Whatever caught your interest in that 15 minutes… Then you…
