When Life Breaks You Open: The Real Story Behind My Newest Mini Course
Loss sucks. In 2020, I found out that my father had passed away the year before in 2019 - his cancer came back, and he didn’t have a second battle left in him. I hadn’t known because my mother, who had Lewy Body Dementia, had forgotten to tell me, or rather, she said she thought she did tell me. Because I didn’t know she had dementia, I thought it was very unkind of her to pretend to have told me when I assumed she knew better. They haven’t been married since the late 80s, but she had friends who stayed in touch with him and his new wife. Anyway, that news shook me to my core since my father and I hadn’t spoken since the day I called him to invite him to my wedding - I was in my 20’s and he simply told me to go away and hung up on me. He never met his only grandson, or my husband, and even though that was his choice, I’ll never understand why he left when I was nearly 18 and cut off all ties with me.
His death was the kind of news that takes your breath away, not just because of the loss itself, but because of the way it arrived, so delayed and disorienting and also what it meant… We would never have a chance to repair our relationship. He’d never meet my husband. He’d never meet his only grandson. The hope I held in my heart my entire life was over.
That was a hard reality to face.
Soon after, my mother’s health rapidly declined and we discovered she had Lewy Body Dementia when the police brought her home in the middle of the night in her pajamas after finding her walking alongside the highway. Her husband, my step father, had no idea she’d left the house in the middle of the night.
During the height of COVID, she was hospitalized, then moved into a care facility in Boston. In 2021, I flew from Germany, my home for the past sixteen years, to sit with her during her final days. I spent a week holding her hand, trying to say goodbye, trying to make peace with all that had passed between us, and all that hadn’t. Leaving her behind in that nursing home broke me. When I returned to Germany, something inside me felt hollow. The grief didn’t just settle into my body, it swallowed me.
She passed away a month later, alone in hospice care under heavy sedation. What a way to leave this world. She was always so full of life and boundless energy, so creative, caring, and I know that she loved me more than anything else in this world.
I spiraled. Quietly, inwardly. Everything around me looked the same, but nothing felt the same. I eventually found a therapist and committed financially and emotionally to a year of regular sessions. I read everything I could get my hands on. I took a course with Mel Robbins to help me to refocus on my business. I talked to friends. I listened to podcasts. But what also helped me, that was free and effortless, was something simple and familiar: journaling.
Every morning, and sometimes at night, I wrote my way through the pain. Page by page, I began to understand that my grief wasn’t just about losing my parents. It was also about a deeper, longer ache, of loneliness, of lack of stability, of not knowing where I truly belonged. Writing helped me see that. It became a mirror, a friend, a way home.
In time, I began to heal.
It’s been nearly 4 years since my mother passed. I feel good again, like myself. Not 100%, but close enough.
That’s why, last year in the Fall, I decided to extract something out of that process of grief and pain. So I spent six months developing a digital guide and workbook with a 7-day mini course, both rooted in everything that had helped me to come back to my power and joy again. I call it Get Real because that’s what it asked of me, and what it now gently asks of anyone who uses it. To get honest. To sit with what’s hard. And to find softness in the process.
It’s for those who feel a little lost. A little burned out. A little out of sync with themselves. It’s slow and calm and personal so no pressure, no performance. Just space to reconnect. The course includes daily reflections, short videos, a bonus sticker book for journaling, and a live group session for those who want a little community to journal together and make vision boards.
This mini course IS NOT focused on the loss of loved ones, or loss in general. It’s not to replace therapy or medicine. The focus is really on giving yourself a boost, a reset, an inspiring and gentle nudge forward.
I created this from a very raw and honest place, not because I have all the answers, but because I know what it feels like to need something like this and not be able to find it.
If you’re going through something, or just feeling far from yourself lately, or are sitting there wondering what’s next for you (career, family, life in general), I hope this helps you begin to find your way back.
Introducing: GET REAL – A 7-Day Guided Reset
This is more than a course. It’s a calm container for clarity.
The GET REAL experience includes:
A 149-page digital guide and workbook filled with thoughtful prompts and creative exercises, which you can download immediately upon enrollment - written and designed by me, Holly Becker.
7 short video lessons (one for each day) to gently guide you.
Daily email encouragement to keep you grounded and inspired from May 1-7, 2025.
A bonus digital sticker book with 150+ journal stickers.
A live 90-minute journaling and vision board session with me on May 7th along with a supportive group of women.
You can move through it in your own time, at your own pace, with no rush and no pressure. It’s gentle. It's grounded. And it's real.
If now feels like the right time to return to yourself, GET REAL is here to meet you where you are.
Love,
Holly
