The Sandwich Generation and Holding Your Own Power with Bekah Vandenberg
Holding Your Power in the Sandwich Generation
To hold your power means to stay grounded in your truth, your worth, and your values—no matter what’s swirling around you. It’s the ability to respond instead of react, to choose from clarity instead of fear, and to protect your energy, confidence, and autonomy rather than handing it over to others or to circumstances.
Many of us—especially women—are taught early on to prioritize others’ needs above our own. We're praised for being nurturing, selfless, and accommodating. And while these traits can be beautiful and life-giving, they can also become the very ways we lose ourselves… and our power.
The Sandwich Generation: Love, Responsibility, and Quiet Depletion
The Sandwich Generation refers to those who are simultaneously raising children while also caring for aging parents. It’s a season filled with deep love, high responsibility—and often, quiet depletion. It’s becoming more and more common, and more and more unsustainable.
Those in this phase are pulled in multiple directions. They’re the emotional glue, the medical advocate, the family scheduler, the late-night listener, and the early-morning problem solver. And while their care is essential, it often comes at a steep cost: the slow erosion of their own power.
How Power Gets Lost in Caretaking
1. Endless Giving Without Replenishment Between parenting, supporting aging parents, and often working or managing a household, there’s little left for self-nourishment. Over time, the tank runs dry—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Power lost: when your energy is always given outward, your inner voice becomes harder to hear.
2. Self-Worth Tied to Being Indispensable Many feel their value is measured by how much they do for others. In the Sandwich Generation, being "needed" is constant—and exhausting. Power lost: when your identity depends on others needing you, it’s hard to access your own needs, dreams, or desires.
3. Silenced Needs and Deferred Dreams Caretaking often leaves little room for self-expression. It’s easy to believe your time will come later. But later doesn’t always come—unless you claim it. Power lost: when you stop speaking your needs, you lose access to your agency.
4. Guilt Around Boundaries Saying no feels selfish. Setting boundaries feels like abandonment. But without boundaries, we absorb everyone else’s chaos—and carry more than our share. Power lost: when you can’t say “this is mine and this is not,” everything becomes your responsibility.
5. Living in Constant Reaction Mode You’re always responding—to a teenager’s crisis, a parent’s health scare, a partner’s needs, a text, a call, a calendar alert. It’s hard to dream or plan when your days are dictated by demands. Power lost: when you live in reaction, you forget you have the power to create.
Ready to Reclaim Your Power?
Join me and guest speaker Bekah Vandenberg for a powerful, supportive conversation on how to take small but mighty steps toward reclaiming your power—without abandoning the people you love.
How to Hold Your Power with Bekah Vandenberg
June 30, 2025
10:30 AM Pacific Time
Live Webinar
We’ll talk about what it means to reclaim your time, your voice, and your energy—in ways that ultimately serve everyone better.
You deserve to feel whole, not just helpful.
xoxo,
