Community for Grievers
If you’re going to be a member of a shit club - like the dead parents club or the widows club or frankly, any other grief club - you might as well have some company.
The Forced Joy Club is a community that helps grievers feel less alone, provides a safe and judgment-free space to share stories and resources, and creates meaningful connections that help better navigate the complexities of grief.
It’s a community of people looking to find connection in the dark and shadowy moments of life, without guilt or shame. It’s a space to learn. To be seen. To heal. To grieve.
And when you join the club, you don’t just get immediate access to all future events, gatherings, and resources - you also get access to the entire backlog since the start of the community (which is coming up on a year!).
If you’ve been curious about joining, but want more insight into what’s available, here is everything you get immediately (and there’s so much more that’s coming in 2024!).
A Community Forum
With the Forced Joy Club Membership, you get access to a community forum to connect in real time and see how others navigate grief, find joy, and handle the speed bumps along the way. Choose to take part in the general community or choose from one of the many subcommunities to find people who get it (a few of the sub-communities include partner loss, parent loss, kids and grief, suicide loss, addiction loss, and more).
Monthly Speaker Series
Each month we bring on a different expert or speaker to help provide guidance. These are hosted live for those who want to participate and all recordings are saved for those who wish to watch later. Past speaker recordings include:
Transforming from the Holy Shit to Holy Shift
Embodied Grief & Somatics
Dating after Death
Releasing Grief & Trauma Through Yoga
Kids and Trauma
Mediums, Readings, & Energy Healing
Writing a Book & Sharing Your Story
Planning Your Best 3 Months
Dating a Widow from the Partner’s Perspective
Grief Rituals
Coping with the Holidays
Parenting Yourself & Your Grieving Kids
MONTHLY Member Grief Chat Series
You also get the opportunity to share your story, as well as listen to the stories of other grievers with our monthly member grief chats. This is a powerful way to connect and see how others are handling their own grief (and to recognize that we are not alone!). All conversations are recorded to watch later. Past topics have included:
Power of Community
Permission to Feel
Complexities of the Caregiver
Directness from Doctors about a Diagnosis
Staying Connected to Loved Ones
How Past Trauma Compounds Grief
Acceptance in Grief
How Grief Evolves Over Time
Traveling While Grieving
Grief in the First Year
Everyday Magic
A Robust Resource Library
Updated each month, some of the current resources include:
Supporting Your Grief:
Grief bookshelf with lists for general grief books, books for kids, partner loss books, and books for the grief supporter (and more coming!)
List of articles on all kinds of grief
Tips for cleaning out a loved one’s closet
Tonkin’s model of grief
Ways to honor loved ones
Grief Literacy:
Ways to support someone grieving
What to say and not say
What to do and not do
How to help a grieving friend
Death Administration:
Passwords checklist
Password Tracker
Self Care & Healthy Healing:
Simple somatic healing practice
Ways to show yourself love while grieving
90 days of seasonal Forced Joy ideas
10 minute guided meditation
5 minute guided breath work
Upcycling grief books into art
A collaborative grief playlist
Regular Challenges
These “challenges” (we use that term lightly because grief is challenging enough), helps us create community with others as we explore ways to heal and move forward in our grief. Past challenges have included:
30 Days of Forced Joy
30 Days of Nervous System Regulation
30 Days of Gratitude
And lots of extras
We are constantly evolving based on member’s needs. Along the way, we’ve had member panel discussions, accountability hours, art workshops, somatics, and more!
Grief is personal. Grief is isolating. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be experienced alone. Join the club.
Please share this post with others who are grieving and may benefit from a community. Grief is personal and it’s lonely, but it doesn’t have to be experienced alone. Come sit in the shit – and maybe also the joy – with people who understand.