Grief: Learning to Carry Joy and Loss Together

If you have ever looked at your life and thought, this is not what I imagined, this conversation is for you.

If you have carried love and grief in the same breath, you will recognize yourself here.

Sharon’s story moves through absence, devotion, and the quiet reshaping that happens when life asks more of you than you feel ready to give. From early experiences of not knowing where she belonged, to the long years of loving and caring for her son Michael, she shares what it means to live inside uncertainty without closing your heart. This is not a story about fixing what cannot be fixed. It is about learning how to stay present when the future feels fragile.

This episode holds space for the kind of grief that does not follow a timeline. The kind that lives alongside laughter. The kind that changes your identity and slowly teaches you how to carry love forward. There is no rush here. Just permission to feel what you feel, and to trust that it all belongs.

What You’ll Hear

1. What it feels like when the life you expected quietly disappears
2. The difference between surviving grief and living alongside it
3. How love deepens when certainty is no longer available
4. Navigating identity after loss without forcing closure
5. Holding joy and sorrow in the same moment
6. Learning to feel seen after years of feeling unseen

Guest Bio

Dr. Sharon Spano works with high-impact leaders who appear successful on the outside but feel something is quietly missing inside. With a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems, she helps CEOs, consultants, and entrepreneurs understand what is actually holding them back, not just in their work, but in their relationships and sense of self.

Much of Sharon’s work centers on what she calls the emptiness of success. The feeling that can linger even after you have done all the right things. Through a blend of science, developmental psychology, and deep personal insight, she guides leaders to uncover hidden barriers, including generational patterns and unresolved grief, so they can lead with more clarity, integrity, and wholeness.

Sharon is the host of The Other Side of Potential, a podcast exploring leadership, growth, and what it means to live beyond pressure-driven success. She is also the author of The Pursuit of Time & Money. At the heart of her work is a simple belief. True success is not about doing more. It is about becoming more fully yourself.

1. Website: https://sharonspano.com/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonspano/
3. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharon.spano.902
4. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsharonspano/
5. Blog: https://sharonspano.com
6. Podcast: The Other Side of Potential: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-other-side-of-potential/id1397898049

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Mentioned in this episode:

Available Now: "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything"

This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. Available now in Kindle and paperback on Amazon. Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Here-Stories-Moments-Everything/dp/1639011854/ If you read it and it moves you, an honest review on Amazon helps more people find it.