Grief Beyond the Funeral: A New Path with Megan Malick

In this special episode, I welcome back Megan Malick to discuss her book A New Path — a workbook and planner created to support people navigating grief while also managing the practical realities that follow the death of a loved one. 

After losing both of her parents within three months of each other, Megan found herself overwhelmed not only by grief, but by the paperwork, legal processes, financial accounts, and responsibilities involved in settling an estate. That experience led her to create a resource combining emotional support, grief education, practical tools, planning systems, and reflective exercises. 

The conversation explores:

•  the emotional strain of being both a grieving family member and executor 
•  how grief affects memory, concentration, and daily functioning 
•  practical ways friends and family can genuinely help 
•  the hidden mental load that comes with paperwork after loss 
•  spiritual rituals and grounding practices during grief 
•  why preparing information in advance can ease the burden for loved ones 

While some of the logistical examples are US-based, many of the emotional and practical aspects discussed apply universally.

This is a conversation about grief beyond the funeral — and the responsibilities many people are left carrying afterwards.

About: Megan Malick is a therapist turned grief and logistics coach, author, and speaker. She is the founder of A New Path, where she supports grieving hearts and soul-o-preneurs through the sacred terrain of life, loss, and legacy. Blending Brainspotting, spiritual care, and deep listening, she helps clients meet the practical with presence—transforming paperwork into ritual. Rooted in her own journey through grief and transformation, Megan’s work invites a slower, wiser way of living, where even endings become portals to meaning, memory, and mystery.

Connect at Substack, Website

Transcript

Intro

Megan Malick 0:00

You know, if you're somebody who has a friend or a family member, it could be for you one to gift, but also to help you know how to ask for help. Um, we had so many people graciously offering how to help, but Regina, if I'm totally honest with you, I didn't even know what I needed help with.

Regina Sayer 0:18

Thanks everybody for joining me again for another special episode. This time, once again, Megan Malick joins me to speak about her book. Now, first of all, I really want to apologise because I sound like I was losing my voice while I was interviewing her, which was probably very possible because I was doing a lot of interviews back at the end of the summer when this was recorded. This episode, I think, is very, very interesting and very useful because when somebody passes away, there is just so much that we have to do. And especially if you are the executor of the person's estate, or if they do have a will, or just getting everything organised. And it really did open my eyes to what my own brother must have faced when he was the executor of the will for my mother when she passed away several years ago. But on top of that, it's just things that you don't really think about in the ways that you could possibly help somebody who is also going through all of these wads of paperwork. Now, while a lot of the show does pertain to processes in the United States, I do think that there are certain parts of Megan's book that definitely apply internationally. And she has another book coming, which you'll hear about as well, that I think for myself is already a process that I'm starting to look at, which is really, you know, preparing for end of life and how and what you're going to leave behind to help your loved ones so that it is not such a horrible, painful process that perhaps you also had to experience yourself when you have lost your loved one and you had to be the person who went through those processes. If you do feel that this is information that somebody else could use, please do pass along the podcast because I do think that it's something that many people face. And of course, leave a review and join us on social media and give your feedback as well. Enjoy. Hi everybody, and welcome to this special episode of Wisdom Without the Guru. So this time my guest is Megan Malick, and she was previously on an episode with us in the last one or two weeks, if you'll look back and have a listen. And at that time, she was sharing her life about navigating the fallout from different types of upheaval she experienced. And this included losing her home to a fire, questions of faith, suddenly remembering childhood abuse years after it happened, ending a marriage, and losing both her parents within three months of each other. Now, this path led to what she does currently, weaving together emotional support, practical guidance, and spiritual wisdom for those managing end-of-life conversations, settling estates, or holding roles like power of attorney or executor. She has authored a book called A New Path, which is a practical workbook and planner that walks with you through the first year of grief and doing estate settlement practices. Now, let me just preface that by saying that this book, part of it will be more intended for the United States listeners, but part of it is intended internationally, and we'll be getting into that. So today we're going to talk about this book, what it's all about, who it will benefit, and of course the healing process that happened for Megan herself as she was writing it, because you don't write something like that and not have memories flooding back in of, of course, what you went through with your own parents. So welcome back again, Megan. Thanks so much for coming and agreeing to do this because I think this is an important book that should be shared.

Megan Malick 4:17

Thank you, Regina. Thank you for having me back. I'm honoured.

The Journey of Writing a Healing Workbook

Regina Sayer 4:20

So let's start. So, what was the inspiration to write this book? I mean, how long did it take to actually get into that process and get it published as well?

Emotional Challenges in Writing

Regina Sayer 4:33

Sure. So the inspiration for writing this specific book came because about a year after my mom died, my best friend from childhood's father became terminally ill to the point where he was entering hospice. My husband's best friend from childhood's father was having a similar thing. And our current closest friends locally, her father entered the hospital with pneumonia and then within a matter of weeks declining. So here are these three people that I don't have the capacity to support in terms of how I would traditionally show up, because I'm still in the trenches myself with my own grief and executing. But also I was in this unique position that not only did I understand the grief, I understood some of the things that they were going to be tasked with that maybe other people wouldn't know to give them the heads up about. I look at it similar to if you listen to the episode, you know I had a hysterectomy. There were people ahead of me on the hysterectomy journey through a closed Facebook group that helped me kind of plan for my own recovery. And so in a very weird way, I was like, oh gosh, I don't know where to send them. And I started to write things. And so I was writing these emails and I was writing up like Google Docs and sending them. And I was receiving feedback that was like, this is really good. Thank you for this. And then my our very good friends who live here, she did lose both of her parents in almost the same timeframe that I lost my parents. And so she and her sister were now having this double whammy of grief, plus their house, all of their belongings, retirement, navigating all of those things and going, well, this wasn't this wasn't part of their plan either. It wasn't, these were not parents that they were anticipating were going to die and were on a slow decline. This was a very fast loss. So I started writing more. And the two of them together said, you need to do something with this. And so I kept writing. Also, if if you listen to the episode, writing is one of my coping strategies. And part of my own healing process, I had gotten connected with a writing group that I was working on some more personal writing than is in this specific book. But there's some personal aspects in this, but writing through some of my own grief narrative. And I was talking with the coach who runs that group, who also has her own publishing company, about writing these things. And she and I started to workshop some things together. And so I joined something called the London Writer's Salon, which is an online community that has three or four hours a day that you sign on and you can write. I wasn't doing three or four hours a day, but I was inviting myself to really show up and write in this Zoom room for an hour or two a day. So within about a year's time, I had written a manuscript that is this book. Now, because it's a workbook, a journal, and a planner, that's not the same as writing a manuscript of a prose text. Also, I'm a psychotherapist, chaplain, and pastor. So the grief-related things and the grief-related practices and exercises are not only things that I used with myself, but they're things that I had used with people that I've served over the years. So that writing, easier is maybe not the right word, but I knew how to bring in previous handouts, previous guides, and adapt them for this. And then the publishing process was like a whole other year. Are you self-published or you went to the road? I used a hybrid publisher. So brave writing or writing brave with Brooke Adams Law. She does book coaching and is working to try to bring brave women voices into the world. And so since I had a pre-existing supportive relationship with her, I elected for hybrid publishing, which gave me editing, an illustrator, the things that come with the publishing house related to taking your manuscript to the next level, which they needed to approve that they would want to have my book be part of it. But it left me with the rights for the book and a really nice rapport and relationship with both the editor of the book, the project manager for the book, and the illustrator. Was it difficult writing any particular part of the book just from an emotional standpoint of view?

Megan Malick 9:01

There were days where it was definitely difficult. For me, that were difficult. There is a part of the book where I invite people to create a spiritual practice for themselves for both opening and closing the sacred space when they're getting ready to work on a practical task. And when I was writing, I mean, I was writing down kind of some of the things that I did with myself. And so I found myself being like, oh my goodness. And I would feel like how it felt, say, when I was getting ready to call an electric company. And I would just know to anticipate that this was going to be a long and more daunting process than I wish that it were. And I would have that kind of like the body memory of that and need to ride it through. There's a part where I describe what's called dual roles. And dual roles in from a counselling perspective, we talk about when you have more than one role with a person, and that can kind of make relationships tricky. You know, when you are a step parent, you are in a parenting role, but you are not a parent at the same time. You're an authority, but you're not. And so that there's like a trickiness there. Well, when you're the executor of an estate, if you are also a beneficiary of that estate, you have two competing roles right there, combined with the fact that often you are close to or had some kind of pre-existing relationship with the person who died. So that's another role. So I wrote a piece about that because I nowhere had I encountered any professional talking to me about that, but I talked with me about it. I had written a couple of things to a couple of the people that I talked about who said that was really helpful. Actually, one of them texted me a picture of like some of my initial writing and circled it and was like, this changed, this game changed it for me. And so I knew I needed to expand that. And writing that, expanding that felt really painful because although I don't reference my unique dual roles to think it through, I was thinking through what were my unique dual triple, quadruple roles.

Regina Sayer 11:04

Gosh, you're making me think about when my mom passed away and my brother, my eldest brother, was the executor and also the beneficiary, the son as well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that that process dragged on because it was in the Bahamas, it dragged on for a year and a half. And yeah, I mean, you know, all the things he was having to do, selling her house that we had all lived in, and it was, you know, only up to him because I lived all I was living in Singapore at the time, and my other brother was living in the States further away, so it was all up to him. So gosh, I never really thought about how much it must have emotionally and mentally had a strain on him.

Understanding Dual Roles in Grief

Megan Malick 11:46

Yeah, it I just want to pause and honour one, your honour, your recognition, and your brothers, as well as to say, I think oftentimes in families, the person that's appointed to this role is usually the linear logical one or whatnot, the good at numbers one. And my sisters are incredibly brilliant humans, but my parents turned out three artistic humans, three big hearted people. So I don't think that in our family there was a person for whom it would be easy to flip the switch, if that makes any sense. I don't know, I'm not gonna qualify that, but I think some humans have an easier time separating them. In our family, we had three people for whom this was gonna all have a profound, we were gonna be aware of the profound emotional effect of the settling process. I think for myself, when you're the lead, right? And I think church pastors have this actually also, as well as CEOs or anybody who when you're making a decision for the we, that might not be what the me would prefer. Right. Me, Meg, and the beneficiary might prefer this. But my duty is to the we as well as to the people that are asking me to do this thing. And so to be able to discern that is hard and not easy. And also sometimes means not going with what other beneficiaries would want, not because it's not what you, the executor, want, but because it's what's being asked by the people that have appointed you. I think that's pretty universal for the process.

Regina Sayer 13:22

Yeah. The part where you're talking about, you know, all the paperwork and the executing part. I've actually sat down with my husband already and said, listen, I mean, we've seen how complicated it is already for him to actually get retirement money, you know, the process and the months and months and months that it's taken to get it. And I've said, listen, you need to go through and you need to tell me, you know, should something happen to you? And because he's already had leukemia and colon cancer once, you know, like, you know, what is the process? Where do I go? You know, here's what I have, here's how you access it, and writing it all down in one pace. And my my mom, she had just left like this slip of paper that just said, okay, there's this bank account, this bank account, this what's here, this what's here, this what's here. And we're like, what? What?

Megan Malick 14:08

Yeah. So, Regina, I think what I hear you referencing, and I started to think of this as like the emotional or the invisible mental and emotional labor that goes along with everything. With technology, I think this will be things many of us are going to be encountering. There's not the paper trail for where are your accounts. And then the process of getting them to whatever the next number is or the next person is or distributed is confusing and there's not a clear path for that. And that's separate from having a will. I mean, in like in the United States, a will says this is where this bank account, this is where these assets in this bank account are going to go. But a will doesn't tell you how does this bank do that? Yeah. Actually, each bank is allowed to have their own something that was like a holy moly to me process was realizing that each bank is allowed to have their own process to do this. And so there are similarities, but not each one was the same. And because of the quickness, and my father had sold a business in an installment sale right at the beginning of COVID that hadn't finished when he died. There were some other straggler things that were like at other banks. And I was like, well, like, where's the playbook? Where's the project management? Where's the tree? I grasped from my my um, you know, my background with ministry and a nonprofits, like, where's the case management? Like, there should be like a treatment plan with like the team and like here are the resources and here's where you go. And um, I mean, we don't do it great, but when somebody's coming, say, out of inpatient and I was working in more high pressure situations, you know, I would, if I was able to be able to like phone into a teleconference and I'd get to hear what was happening, and there would be like the social worker, and there would be like housing related, and there would potentially be like a church pastor on the call, and there would be me and possibly a family member. And so we'd have some sort of like care plan for somebody moving out of inpatient back to residential living outside. And I was like, there's not something like that for this? Why do we have something like that for this?

Regina Sayer 16:17

So, who is this planner journal guidebook aimed at?

Megan Malick 16:23

It's aimed at either adult children who have lost one or both of their parents, or if you're you've lost a spouse. In the States, many spouses share related items, and there is still quite a lot for the spouse who has lost a spouse to do logistically. I mean, not only are you now responsible for whatever your other person did in where you lived and all of that, but for example, if a credit card is under one person's name, they might even think it's a joint credit card, but it might be actually Megan is the account owner, Megan's spouse is uh user, that person is gonna have to go through the process of closing that credit card and reopening another one. When people lose a spouse, one of the most common images, metaphors that they use is that they say that it feels like they've lost a limb, which to me makes a lot of sense because if you've been with somebody for a very long time, our bodies and our our brains literally we we have neuroscience that support the relearning of all of that. So to have to deal with getting another credit card is like, well, you've got to just be kidding me, if that makes any sense at all.

Regina Sayer 17:36

Well, it's kind of like adding insult to injury, isn't it?

Megan Malick 17:40

Very much, very much. And so it's for those two groups, as well as, you know, if you're somebody who has a friend or a family member, it could be for you, one to gift, but also to help you know how to ask for help. We had so many people graciously offering how to help, but Regina, if I'm totally honest with you, I didn't even know what I needed help with. Like I could barely get through, like it was like getting myself up, getting myself water. Like my spouse sat with me some nights just to look at my planner for the next day because it was like, I just need help putting that together. Um, I need help putting my to-do list together. I can't do that myself, which is super humbling FYI for a person who's like top people to do that her whole life. But um it's also for those who are close with a bereaved person. After the funeral, you want to help, you're sending the how do I help email. There are suggestions for one, for the person to ask for help, but also it could give you ideas for, oh, I could offer to help with this. You can make a concrete offer rather than what can I do for you.

Regina Sayer 18:52

That's actually sounds nice because sometimes, you know, people just don't know what they should do. How did they know how they can help? They don't know what to say. So maybe just by saying, Oh, I can help you with some of the things that you need to take care of is offering a hand out.

Megan Malick 19:08

Yeah. I mean, to to have somebody rather than say, How can I help you, say, hey, I know you're gonna have to be going to the banks and taking multiple death certificates. Would you like me to come and sit by you with the computer? Would you like me to come with you? Would you like me to like you could give A, B, C, D choices and then say text one back if one sounds good? Like just a letter.

Structure and Content of the Workbook

Regina Sayer 19:32

Yeah, that's great. And so the book you say is split into sections. It is split into sections. Yeah. And so what are these sections?

Megan Malick 19:41

Yeah. So the the first book the book is called A New Path: A Practical Workbook and Planner for the First Year of Grief and Settling Your Person's Affairs. So before I go any further, I just want to say grief is a lot longer than a year. And settling your person's affairs, the average in the States currently is the length of time it takes to get an associate's degree. So like 22 months. And it takes about that equivalent amount of time per week, too.

Regina Sayer 20:12

But is that because people don't know what they're doing and it takes that long? Or the process. Or is it just the paperwork process is just so long?

Megan Malick 20:20

Paperwork process. The paperwork process. Oh, it depends on, again, how much has been resolved in the person's life, but the paperwork process is long. It takes a long time to move things through. Like you were saying with your husband and his retirement. Like he knows who he is, you know who he is. You know what he's done, he knows what he's done. He is due this retirement. But the process to get to that is very lengthy and takes many steps. And settling, closing out different things can be similar in that respect. So there are six chapters. The first is grief and how to live with and in grief. So with that, there's a little information about grief in your brain and your body, what's happening to you. A lot of people in early grief think they're going crazy. And it feels like you're going crazy, and your brain is having an expected grief response. That doesn't mean there's not need for help, but just to say it can feel very disorienting and disorientation comes with grief. And then there are some practices to help you. I call it the basic needs, kind of in the early part of crisis and loss, and then ways to ask for help and what to ask for. There's a whole chapter on helpers and asking for help. Then there's a section on the logistics, which are all of the things that might be involved and ritual for how you go about that. Then there is monthly and weekly organiser and planner with journal questions, monthly questions, and ways for you to keep track of what you're doing every day, both for yourself and for what you're responsible. To, as well as places to invite you to ask for help for somebody and go back to the helper section and think about what I could bring in here. Then there's a chapter on more practices and education about grief and the grieving process, and a final chapter on settling your person's affairs that includes glossary of terms and sample letters and things like that that you can borrow from to adapt, not necessarily adopt or say, but to kind of just give an idea of what you might be facing. And a list of resources at the end, books, podcasts, professionals to turn to.

Regina Sayer 22:38

And you said also that you have a list of resources by state. So if you're in the States, for example.

Megan Malick 22:44

I don't list them by state. In here, there is a resource called the Professionals After Loss. You can look up their website. They do trainings now. I did their training and they do trainings for people about how to work with logistical pieces with people of settling things out. And there, they not only have resources, but they have people segmented by region in the states, as well as some folks that work outside of the states, and what that looks like. And so that would be a place that you could start.

Regina Sayer 23:17

Okay. Okay. That's interesting. So can you read a little bit from the part that's on grief?

Megan Malick 23:25

I'm going to start with the very beginning, and then I will go to a poem that I wrote during the early days of my own experience that I incorporated in. Hello, fellow griever. I invite you to pause for a moment. To imagine we sit across from one another. I offer you a cool glass of water or a warm cup of tea. We look at one another eye to eye. I hold your gaze in mine. I send you love and compassion to support you in this moment of pause. I hesitate to say welcome. Most folks don't desire to be here or to read these pages. We meet because someone you love died or is terminally ill. In addition to your grief, you face the task of resolving the logistical affairs of their life. Whether you are the legally appointed representative, executor, or not, this book seeks to companion you through the next year. Please know that all of the practices and ideas in this book are invitations for you. They are not musts or shoulds or have-to's. You are going to have many of those. So if you come to a page or a practice that is not for you, simply let it go. As someone who reads for pleasure and writes to make meaning in my world, my loss of language was felt so fiercely in the early days of my grief. The suggestions I reached, received from others led me to write this poem. Missing words. In the early days, words would come and go as randomly as there, they just went now while typing. This happened consistently and comprehensively in those early days. I audio messaged and emailed friends, trying to tether myself to this world, this reality, this moment. They encouraged me to write more and promised writing would steady me, but I just couldn't in those early days. Too much, too heavy, too overwhelming, no words left. I had only me and silence. If you find yourself speechless and silent, please know that you are not alone.

Regina Sayer 25:44

And you say that there's you offer tools in there as well?

Megan Malick 25:49

I do, I do. So one of the first tools for the early on process, which is after I talk a little bit about your brain and grief, I won't read to you from that. If you if you all are interested, you can find it. I'm a brain person, and so learning information about how the brain works is very grounding and orienting for me. I know it's not for everybody. There's a section called the basic needs. When you're in grief, life can be confusing, disorienting, and overwhelming. There are so many demands placed upon grievers on top of the emotional wound. For many of us, it's helpful to have reminders of what will help us survive. I invite you to see meeting your basic needs as one of the ways you can care for yourself on your bereavement pilgrimage. Meeting your basic needs can help sustain you when the day is long and the climb is steep. These are suggestions and invitations. So each of the letters represents a way to care for ourselves, the B being breathe. So a lot of times we hold our breath or our breath becomes really shallow. And so just even occasionally reminding yourself to take a breath and that it's okay. A is for activity, so movement of some kind. I'm not very prescriptive on what's right. Everybody's body and situation is different. And yet it's important to move your body some. Sleep is the S. That is one of the most difficult things, oftentimes, for people in early grief. And again, there's no way you can make yourself get sleep. And I offer a couple of ways that you could encourage yourself to maybe get a little of it or at least get some rest, identifying emotions. The C is for clean because it can get easy to even forget to pause and shower or bathe, as well as like kind of washing your hands or brushing your teeth. And it might sound really simple, but something as small as taking time to savor the scent of your soap or the way that your face soap feels on your skin can be just a moment to remind you that, okay, there's something else in this life that's bigger than this thing that feels so big and overwhelming. N is for nature. So getting outside some way. Eating is another big thing for folks in grief. And so I again invite people to just, you know, if just a couple bites is okay, or just to even notice where they are with that. And notice if there's anything that makes them feel better or worse. Because sometimes people will be like, oh, that food doesn't actually agree with me. Or, oh, that one actually felt good. Explore. So taking time outside of things, podcasts, movies, diversions from your experience. Like it's okay to take a mental break, drink, having water, sips of water. And S is for stop. There's something called a grief burst. And so people talk about I'm okay, and then all of a sudden, grief comes on. It feels like a big wave. And for many people in early grief, driving a car or being at work is when this happens. Everything feels like it's fine. And there's some sort of an autopilot moment. And so the S is for stop, just reminding people like there's no shame in pulling over into a parking lot if you feel one coming when you're driving. If you allow yourself to cry, often it doesn't last very long. And then you can get back on the road. But your safety is important. As well as if you're in work, if you just need to excuse yourself and go to the restroom, step away. Or if you're, you know, working from home, take a breather from your computer, go to the bathroom, splash some water. It's okay to stop. Allow the grief to come. You can download this for free on my website, the check, the basic needs checklist.

Regina Sayer 29:29

For yourself, which was the hardest one to get through?

Megan Malick 29:34

So this is super humbling, but I wrote about it in my newsletter, so I will tell you. Um, apparently, I stopped really bathing well. Walking in the morning became a real anchor for me, and I was doing that. I was doing some journaling when my words were coming back. Thankfully, my sleeping was okay. I was getting out, but I got so caught up in all the logistics and all the things. My husband one day was like, pretty much like, you really stink. Like, you really stink. And I was like, I do. I'd like I don't even know how long I'd gone by. I'd changed my clothes, but I hadn't like showered, bathed. I fell out of that rhythm. I would take my walk, and then I'd have these demand tasks that I thought really needed to get done. I'd have a financial advisor to call, I'd have the attorney to talk to, I'd have household tasks to take care of. I had to move my parents out within six weeks' time of all of this. So, like things to do.

Regina Sayer 30:35

Wow. That's just not something you think about, but I guess it's quite true. Because when you think about it, when you're depressed, you don't want to get out of your clothes, you don't want to get in the shower, you don't want to brush your teeth, this type of thing.

Megan Malick 30:50

All of that. And then, you know, once upon a time, I was a Gray's Anatomy fan, for those who have ever watched that show. There's an episode where Izzy's fiance dies, and then you see her lying on the floor in the bathroom in this like beautiful gown, and they keep wanting her to change. And Christina, the character, comes in and they're talking and about changing. And then it occurs to Christina that in the Jewish tradition where with sitting Shiva, people don't, they don't change their clothes. There's a season of time where you're sitting in everything as it was.

Regina Sayer 31:26

Okay. Yeah. Is there any kind of spiritual aspect in there?

Megan Malick 31:32

There is a spiritual aspect in here. There is a section on having some kind of a sacred process or ritual for when you are, the reader is engaging in one of the logistical tasks that they need to do. So there is guidance for creating sacred space for yourself. There are suggestions for that. There are scripts that you can use for writing an intention for a prayer, as well as an invitation for you to write your own and space for you to create your own. And that also gets incorporated in the months of kind of thinking where that is.

Regina Sayer 32:13

And what do you think is the most impactful part of this book for a reader?

Megan Malick 32:19

I think that depends on who the reader is. I think all grief is difficult, but each grief is its own and unique. And so I think the book seeks to honor that for people and meet people in a variety of places. So I think for people for whom having some kind of way to make spiritual meaning and ritual, I think the ritual section will be helpful. For people who know nothing about grief and have practices like that, that will be helpful. I think for people who are like, where's my list? and I need to get it done, that will be helpful. Um, I have heard that simply having the words to point to from people has been really helpful. The basic needs has been a consistent thing that I've gotten feedback on that people have found very, very, very uh helpful with the idea, but also very supportive in that, okay, I thought there was something really wrong with me that I have to like work on these things. But no, there's maybe nothing wrong with me. These things are hard when we're in a crisis. It's easy to lose track.

Creating Community for Grievers

Regina Sayer 33:22

In the book, is there a way that I don't know how to say this, is there some kind of membership for people who might be reading the book and going through the process who are wanting to group together and help each other out?

Megan Malick 33:34

So not yet. That is certainly something I am looking at my Substack, The Accidental Matriarch, as becoming potentially an early space where people could meet, connect, gather. And, you know, a monthly where if you're a subscriber, where I would be like, okay, let's get together and have like a paperwork and presence hour of like, let's be together. I will open the space. We'll say what we're going to work on for this hour, I will close the space. And then like a monthly time of connecting over grief so that there would kind of be two connection point options. That is not there yet. So if you are listening to this and you are interested, please do reach out because it helps me say, okay, yes, this is something that people are interested in. People want to have there.

Regina Sayer 34:24

Having said that, by the time this podcast actually does get released, because we're pre-recording it, it might actually be existing.

Where to Find the Workbook

Megan Malick 34:31

It might that this is actually very true. Because literally, this is some of in my like fall, like my fall plan. Okay. So where can you find this book anyway? So you can find this book on Amazon, on Barnes and Noble, on bookshop.org, little plug which supports independent booksellers. You can also find it on my website, um, a-new-path.com.

Regina Sayer 34:55

And is it only hardback or is it also Kindle or well, Kindle wouldn't be very good for the workbook part of it, probably.

Another Workbook - Planning for Peace

Megan Malick 35:04

It is available on Kindle because that's how people sometimes get things. On my website, you can get a uh PDF version that you can download. On the paperback version is a QR code so that for people who really like the tactile, there's extra pages with the planner that they can download and print out for themselves, put into a binder, you know, because I also understand everyone kind of repurposes and makes hopefully makes a something like this their own.

Regina Sayer 35:36

Have you ever thought about doing something that actually is a pre-process that for the people who are nearing maybe the end of their life that they could put into, you know, exactly what I'm talking about with my husband and I. And not that I'm nearing the end of my life, hopefully, but that, you know, to make it easy for people who would be reading that book.

Megan Malick 35:58

I do. I do. I have a workbook that's not yet available. I'm not going to go through as I'm not going to publish it. It will likely be a digital product that will be available called Planning for Peace. Like this workbook, it isn't a here's just what to do. So my um, I call them the five M's that make this hard. The hidden things of like, wait a second, this is reckoning with my mortality. Wait a second, this is making me deal with money. And for many of us, we don't necessarily have great money scripts, even if we're comfortable with our own, this is about sharing it with other people. Wait a second, what's my motivation for talking with somebody about this? Because I don't really know that. Modelling is doing your own. And then my my last, and this is my anchor, I think if you anchor it into your meaning and your values, and if you get a sense of like, oh, I'm doing this retirement paperwork, and it's easy to lose sight of because it feels like a slog. But my my value in doing this is in loving my people. No, I'm good. This is me projecting my values. So this is loving my people well. I want them to feel my love in how I leave my things. I want them to feel me caring for them and how I've prepared for this awful season. And so that workbook will have that element with it too, not just uh, hey, do this.

Regina Sayer 37:25

I think that's actually a fantastic workbook to have because I don't think that far too many people just they don't prepare mentally, emotionally, physically, whatever.

Megan Malick 37:36

You know, Regina, literally, obviously, you go through something like what I did, you write what I write, all of these things. And my husband and I have talked about, I mean, we've come a long way with what our things are from where they were. And it's still, I mean, I'm one of the most motivated and educated people related to this. And it's like, I can only do so much at a time. I have to light my candle and get in my head, heart, space to be there. And then when I feel my body start to go, hitting my limit for today, I have to walk away. And I don't think that's how most of us face doing stuff like that. It's certainly not how I was taught to face like creating. I wasn't actually you know, yeah. Like how you just fill out the paperwork. Fill it o ut.

Regina Sayer 38:21

I just can't even imagine what it was like in COVID. It must have been nightmares. It must have just, ugh, I can't even.

Megan Malick 38:29

I can't either. I do think it got over COVID, it became far more complicated because things were pivoting from the in-person to the virtual at such a rapid rate.

Regina Sayer 38:41

Yep. Is there anything else you want to say about the book?

Megan Malick 38:47

No, I feel I was gonna say I have all kinds of strategies and practices that help people with this, but no, I think this is this is good.

Connecting with Megan and Final reflections

Regina Sayer 38:55

Okay. Well, talk about where people can connect with you through your website.

Megan Malick 39:00

So you can go to my a-new-path.com. You can see me there. You can sign up for a discovery call if you want to talk with me personally. I have a newsletter. I write something called the Accidental Matriarch on Substack. So you can join that and get I call them weekly-ish. But that's a great place to connect with me.

Regina Sayer 39:22

Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for sharing about that book. I'm sure that in more ways than one, that it can be very, very useful for a lot of people, whether they need the planning part of it, they need the grief part. Because I think we all experience the grief. And the grief sort of just piles on top when you have to do the paperwork as well.

Megan Malick 39:45

It really does. A friend of mine who was one of like the book recommender endorsers has an adult with disabilities and called me and she said, you know, I never realised how much every year when I'm filling out his paperwork, my procrastination is my grief. Basically, she was saying it's so much more paperwork. It's not just bereavement. It's the grief that comes along with the paperwork of when we're ending things that we thought were going to start a way they don't end up.

Regina Sayer 40:13

Well, I think that's a perfect ending for the podcast right there. That was a perfect observation of your friend. All right, listeners. Please reach out to Megan about any questions you have. And of course, particularly if you're in the States and the parts about the different process, et cetera. Definitely about the grief as well. Check out her website. And Megan, thank you so very much for first your time on the podcast and then sharing this wonderful book that you have written as a resource for so many people.

Megan Malick 40:48

You are welcome.

Regina Sayer 40:50

All right. You have been listening to a special episode of Wisdom Without the Guru. Until the next time, I wish all you listeners a beautiful day wherever you are in this vast, beautiful world. Bye, everybody.