The Adapted Life, Finding Next

Hosted by Julie Hasselberger

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Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

I’m Julie Hasselberger. For 26 years, I was the full-time caregiver for my beloved son Daniel, whose life was marked by profound disability and extraordinary beauty. This podcast began as a way to support other parents navigating the complex, often isolating world of special needs caregiving. But life changed — heartbreakingly and irrevocably — when my son passed away. Now, The Adapted Life, Finding Next is a space for truth-telling, tenderness, and transformation. It’s about what comes after the role that once defined you is gone. It’s about grief, relational trauma, resilience, and the raw, ongoing search for next — for purpose, healing, and connection. If you’re facing a season of reckoning, rebuilding, or rediscovery, I invite you to walk with me. You are not alone. This is the adapted life… and together, we’ll find what comes next.

Listen to episodes

45 recent

June 4, 2026Episode 4426 min

Trusting your energy, Listening to inner knowing

Send me a Text MessageEpisode 44: Trusting Your EnergyLearning to Listen to Your Inner KnowingEpisode DescriptionHave you ever had a feeling that something wasn't quite right—but talked yourself out of it? Orsensed that a new direction was calling you—but doubted yourself because you couldn't explainwhy? In this episode, we're exploring what it means to trust your energy. Not blindly. Not perfectly.But with curiosity, discernment, and compassion. Our energy is constantly communicating with us.It shows up in what energizes us, what drains us, what expands us, what contracts us, and whatrepeatedly asks for our attention. Perhaps trusting your energy isn't about becoming more certain.Perhaps it's about becoming more willing to listen.Reflective questions for thought or journal prompts: 1. What consistently gives me energy?2. What consistently drains me?3. Where do I feel most like myself?4. Have there been times when my energy knew before I did?5. What am I trying to talk myself out of?6. If I truly loved myself, what would I stop arguing with myself about?7. What is my energy trying to tell me right now?Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

May 28, 2026Episode 4338 min

Protect your energy, boundaries and self-love

Send me a Text MessageSeason 5 • Episode 43Protecting Your EnergyThe Adapted Life: Finding NextIn this episode of The Adapted Life: Finding Next, Julieexplores the quiet but necessary practice of protectingyour energy — especially after loss, caregiving, burnout,betrayal, trauma, or seasons of deep emotionalexhaustion.As part of the Season 5 theme, Tending to the Energy, thisconversation reflects on what happens when we becomemore aware of where our energy is going… and realizethat not everything deserves full access to us.Julie shares gentle reflections about emotional labor,boundaries, overstimulation, compassion fatigue, and thepressure many sensitive people feel to constantly give,explain, fix, or carry. This episode offers permission tostep back without guilt, to honor your nervous system,and to recognize that boundaries are not punishment —they are stewardship.Through calming encouragement and thoughtful insight,listeners are invited to consider:• What restores versus drains them• The hidden cost of constant giving• Why protecting your peace is an act of healing• How grief and trauma can change our capacity• The importance of creating space for recovery,creativity, and presenceThis episode is a reminder that protecting your energy is not selfish — it is part of tending the light within you. You, are not the weather, you dear friends, are the lighthouse. Take a breath, settle in, and join Julie for a gentleconversation about honoring your limits, reclaiming yourpeace, and learning that you are allowed to protect what issacred in you.Music by Epidemic Soundwritten, recorded, and created by Julie HasselbergerSupport the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

May 11, 2026Episode 4211 min

You Were Trying to Love, guided meditation

Send me a Text MessageThis is a guided meditation for anyone who is going through betrayal trauma or deep grief. Or both. You are not the storm. You are the lighthouse my friends. This is a healing meditation, and a poem of encouragement. I Love you. Please let me know if you like this meditationSupport the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

May 11, 2026Episode 4122 min

Tending to your energy

Send me a Text MessageIn this episode, we talk about what we do once we are experiencing awareness of our energy. Not fixing it, but just being aware of gentle ways to tend to that energy. WHAT TENDING ISTending to your energy is not about fixing yourself.It’s not about getting it right.It’s about noticing…and responding…with care.Moment by moment. Gentle self care, can sometimes lessen the impact that your energy may have on you. Join me as I continue to follow the intuitive path through deep and tragic grief towards where life is pulling me next. And maybe you can resonate with this journey. I am so grateful that you are here. Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

April 13, 2026Episode 407 min

Calling your energy back, a guided meditation

Send me a Text MessageIn this guided meditation, we just take a few minutes to focus on where our energy has been sent today, and peacefully call some it back to us. Thank you for listening! Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

April 13, 2026Episode 3913 min

Where does your energy go?

Send me a Text MessageEPISODE DESCRIPTIONHave you ever reached the end of the day and wondered why you feel so exhausted… even when you didn’t “do” that much? In this episode, we explore a deeper understanding of energy—not just physical, but emotional, mental, and relational. Because often, it’s not about how much you’re doing… it’s aboutwhat you’re carrying. We gently look at the invisible ways your energy gets pulled—and begin to shift toward awareness. This is not about fixing everything. It’s about noticing. And from that place, beginning to understand what truly drains you… and what restores you.In upcoming episodes we will work on not only awareness of your energy, but how to tend to it. Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

March 20, 2026Episode 3824 min

The Power of a Spark

Send me a Text MessageEpisode DescriptionIn this opening episode of the new season of The Adapted Life: Finding Next, I reflect on the quiet but powerful ways that connection can begin to illuminate even the darkest seasons of life.Through personal storytelling, gentle reflection, I explore the idea that even the smallest spark — a moment of understanding, a shared story, or a simple human connection— can begin to move us toward healing.This season focuses on tending to the energy of our lives: noticing what restores us, what drains us, and how turning inward can help guide us toward what comes next.Keywords• grief healing• trauma recovery• mindfulness and meditation• life transitions• emotional healing• healing through storytelling• finding purpose after lossSupport the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

February 18, 2026Episode 374 min

New Season Introduction

Send me a Text MessageThis is Julie Hasselberger. Introducing Season 5 (not 60 of my podcast The adapted life, Finding Next This season, is about tending to the energy of being somewhere in the middle of healing from devastating loss and trauma, and the place of finding what comes next. A gentle stepping forward into coming home to your true self, and managing the chaos of a reality that no longer applies. Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

November 10, 2025Episode 3613 min

Coming Home to Present, as a tool

Send me a Text MessageHello, In this episode I speak tenderly about how meditation has transformed my journey with grief and pain. This is my first ever guided meditation, so I am sure it won't be perfect. I have layered grief, and deep trauma. It has significantly caused me so much difficulty in finding my way again. This is why I added on "finding next", because this journey is just that, a journey. I hope this meditation brings you some calm. I love visualizing the forest full of giant pines that we saw in the San Jacinto mountains in California where my daughter recently got married.I'm trying to live each day, with the goal of existing and creating from my heart. It is about all my broken heart can spare. But I am here, dear ones. I am here because I know I am not alone in my pain. Maybe we can step side by side and heal trauma together. Maybe even one little moment is enough. Please feel free to leave me some feedback, you can find me also on you tube, instagram, Facebook, and here. I have been hoping to learn how to be a meditation guide, which is what I am working on now. I thought... why not just try. All my love, Julie Support the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg

October 5, 2025Episode 3519 min

Love in transition, healing from brokenness

Send me a Text MessageThe Adapted Life Podcast, by Julie HasselbergerSeason 4 Episode 35 "Love in transition." Adapting in our brokenness. Love is not static, it bends, breaks and mends across time. The loss of child shatters a family, but love finds ways to carry them forward. Growth in empathy, and emotional intelligence can reconnect partners even decades later. Love is like "Kintsugi" The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, the cracks remain, but they shine.Thought provoking questions are shared regarding our experience with adversity, loss, trauma, grief and how love in so many of our relationships is sometimes damaged and rebuilt.We lost our beloved Daniel on January 12, 2024. Stay with me as I work through grief and finding purpose. It is early days. And very hard. Music licensed by Epidemic sound and Premium BeatSupport the showhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnavhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg