Happenings in the Forced Joy Club

The Forced Joy Club is a community that helps widows find a life of joy after loss. The purpose is to feel less alone, provide a safe and judgment-free space to share stories and resources, and create meaningful connections that help navigate the complexities of grief.

This page will be updated regularly with the most current events.

January 2026 Events

Speaker Series: Remembering Your Person Workshop with Kiera Liu: January 21

Join Kiera Liu, photographer and memory keeper, as we spend an hour remembering your loved one and reframing the stories that connected you. When we lose our partner, photos and stories are all we have left, making it vital to organize them in a meaningful way.

This guided workshop will help you document key stories and memories of your life together. The goal is to help you identify what memories matter most right now and create a system to begin preserving them, with continued support available beyond the workshop should you so choose.

Happy/Crappy Hour: January 6

Show up as you are to these virtual get-togethers that allow us to get to know each other better and connect over our shared (happy & crappy) experiences. From casual conversation to themes (like show & tell), these unrecorded sessions give us a safe space to vent, hold space, and celebrate the tiny wins in grief.

Craft & Chat: January 8 & 28

Led by one of our members, we gather in community to tap into our creative side. Crafting can be meditative, healing, a positive way to release pent-up energy, and frankly, fun! All crafts and skills welcome.

Get Shit Done Accountability Hour: January 9 & 23

In grief, there are a million tasks to get through. And we can spend weeks avoiding a phone call that would take 5 minutes to make. Maybe it brings up trauma or maybe you're just too exhausted to care, but whatever the reason for avoiding, let's support each other and check off one (or more) items from our dreaded to-do lists. 

Yoga Therapy with Julia Warren: January 14

Join Julia Warren, C-IAYT, in our monthly series to support our nervous system through breathwork, yoga, and somatic healing. Julia brings a gentle, embodied approach to healing, rooted in lived experience and a deep belief that we can integrate our grief in a way that makes space for a beautiful, meaningful life after loss.

Writing Circle: January 16 & 30

Many of us use writing as a way to cope with our grief, whether it's rage journaling, working on a memoir, writing poetry, or something in between. Join us as we support one another in this practice. 

Book Club: Remarkably Bright Creatures: January 27

Hosted by one of our members, escape reality and join us in the FJC's book club! Our next book will be Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, a charming, witty, and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. (And soon to be a Netflix movie with Sally Fields!).

JOIN THE CLUB

Past Club Events

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 (with more added every single month).

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. Think old-school chat room style, where you can pour your heart out anytime, day or night.

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 replays are saved for those who wish to watch later. Past speaker recordings include:

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

  • Sibling Love & Loss

  • Evolution of Relationships (with Others and Ourselves)

  • Loneliness & Grief

  • Fuck Fine

  • Anxiety & Grief

  • Grief 10 Years In

Community Chats Series

Part of being in community is having a safe space to discuss the hard topics. Added in 2025, Community Chats are conversations between members, where we can share experiences, ask questions, and provide guidance. Some of the topics include:

  • Grieving with and without kids

  • When a widow starts dating

  • Signs from the other side

  • Death admin

  • Holidays: now & then

Somatics Library by Yoga Therapist, Julia Warren

Over 15 hours of recorded nervous system support created by Julia Warren, C-IAYT. Julia joins us monthly as a yoga therapist, mom of two boys, and widow who lost her husband, Doug, in 2021. She supports clients through yoga therapy, somatic-based practices, alongside nervous system support and education. Julia brings a gentle, embodied approach to healing, rooted in lived experience and a deep belief that we can integrate our grief in a way that makes space for a beautiful, meaningful life after loss.

Virtual Gatherings

A variety of gatherings, including:

  • Happy/Crappy Hours

  • Get Shit Done Accountability Hour (every other Friday)

  • Writing Circle (every other Friday)

  • Craft & Chat

  • Book Club, Movie Club, TV Club

  • Community Yoga

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

  • Digital Grief Registry

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

  • Financial Checklist

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), help us create community with others as we explore ways to heal and move forward in our grief. These challenges include:

  • 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 members’ 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.

Join the Forced Joy Club
Dana Frostforced joy club, grief community, grief support, grief gift, widow communityComment