Patricia Heaton Opens Up About Starting Fresh After TV Show Cancellation

Patricia Heaton is both embracing and celebrating her life — and is encouraging others to do the same!

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the actress, 62, opens up about her journey of transformation and how her now-cancelled show, CBS sitcom Carol’s Second Act, inspired her to tell adventurous stories of reinvention in her new book.

Your Second Act, published by Simon & Schuster, is filled with inspirational anecdotes drawn from Heaton’s personal experiences (from building her career to love and surviving an empty nest) and the experiences of other people who are pursuing their dreams. Among those people is a carpet salesman who became an actor, an NFL linemen who pursued his dreams to become an opera singer, a Hollywood director who now trains adults with Autism, and more.

After Carol’s Second Act, which Heaton both headlined and executive-produced, was canceled in May, the actress — who had just begun to try her hand at producing with Carol — didn’t wallow in defeat.

“There are these little funerals you have to have for certain dreams, because that’s how you make way for new things,” Heaton tells PEOPLE.

Pushing past hurdles has long been a part of her life. Just 12 when her mother died of an aneurysm, Heaton battled depression in the years that followed.

“I think because of my mother’s death, I’ve been very good at facing disappointments and struggles, letting go and moving forward," she says. “When everything is taken away from you and you start mulling over what’s important to you in your life, things become very much clearer."

Now, Heaton is embracing what comes her way.

“We used to look at a big change in life as a midlife crisis, but a second act is a reinvention that can happen at any age and at any time, whether because of circumstance or an awakening,” she says. “Just get out there and embrace your life!”

In February, the actress opened up about her journey thus far — and offered up some encouraging words.

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“I’m embarking on what I call my second act,” she previously told PEOPLE. “I have lived a life beyond my wildest dreams and I’m so grateful. Life wasn’t handed to me on a silver platter by any stretch. I’ve worked hard, skinned my knees, cried my eyes out, regretted, doubted, and second-guessed myself along the way.”

She continued: “For me, handing everything over to God changed my life. I’ve gone up and down many different paths; looking back, I see how the seed for my second act was clearly planted in my first act. I think you’ll find the same is true for you, too.”