Forward To Joy
Alexandra Wyman was faced with immense grief when her husband died by suicide in 2020, instantly leaving her a widow and single mom. Since then, she has been finding ways to work through her grief, navigate parenthood and take steps to finding joy again. Join Alexandra on her continued grief journey, find some tips and tricks, hear from others about their grief journey and know you are not alone. Alexandra is an advocate and public speaker for resources in the aftermath of suicide.
Episodes
August 6, 2025 • 20 mins
This week, Alexandra chats about the importance of building community during the grief process. Sometimes, people we think will show up for us don’t and others will. Experiencing grief can be isolating. Alexandra gives some suggestions for how to start building community when feeling isolated or lonely.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com....
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July 30, 2025 • 56 mins
This week, Melissa Vera returns to discuss how being able to work through a loss does not mean that other losses will not be impactful. She tragically lost two dear friends and discusses how she began grieving them. Additionally, Melissa and Alexandra discuss a different type of grief and that of what is happening in the current US climate around immigration. Families are being ripped apart, racial profiling is occurring and there ...
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July 23, 2025 • 48 mins
Shavaun Scott, author of her memoir, Nightbird, shares her story of working through her grief and rebuilding her life and herself after her husband died by revenge suicide. Shavaun shares about the healing she has done in reconciling being in an abusive relationship for as long as she was and not allowing her grief to keep her from putting one foot in front of the other. Nightbird: https://a.co/d/7lrFBc4https://www.shavaunscott.com...
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July 16, 2025 • 13 mins
This week, Alexandra was inspired by a quote from Maya Angelou: “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” This reminded Alexandra of when others have treated her with pity and made her feel inferior. All too often we can become paralyzed by grief and what we are going through, but it doesn’t have to define us.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email...
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July 8, 2025 • 16 mins
This week, Alexandra talks about journaling. She discusses the research-backed benefits of journaling as well as some prompts that can be helpful when building a habit around journaling. Writing in a notebook may not work for everyone, however, there are other ways to engage in journaling through voice memos. There are also apps that can help with reflection and journaling.
Grief Journaling Prompts: https://www.griefrecoveryhoust...
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July 1, 2025 • 9 mins
This week is super short and sweet message from Alexandra about holding the belief and hope not only for ourselves but for others. Sometimes we have to borrow belief and hope from others until we can find it ourselves. Be that person for another and continue building community. We are not alone.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portion...
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June 24, 2025 • 62 mins
Lorne shares her vulnerable story of how she lost her husband by suicide leaving her a single parent to two kids. There were no signs, she did not see it coming and yet she figured out how to put one foot in front of the other to start her grieving process and guide her kids. Lorne is an example of finding moments of joy in the aftermath of tragedy.
Lorne’s interview on She diaries:
https://brightskyhouse.com/2025/04/21/lornes-...
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June 17, 2025 • 22 mins
This week, Alexandra shares a few of the bigger themes and take-aways from the International Association of Suicide Prevention World Congress 2025. Though the conference focused on suicide prevention, there were lessons and themes that can apply to grief and other types of loss.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on th...
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June 11, 2025 • 15 mins
This week, Alexandra chats about another aspect of grief related to routines shifting and changing. When we lose someone we are close to we also lose the routines and habits we had with them. No matter how prepared or not we are for a loss our bodies and cells anticipate and hold onto the routines. It takes time and healing for our bodies to accept the shift and change.
Huberman LabHealing From Grief and Loss with Dr. Mary-Frances...
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June 3, 2025 • 15 mins
This week, Alexandra chats about the idea of zooming out. Grief can force us to have tunnel vision and to get sucked into day to day life so we miss the big picture. There is a thru line in our lives and zooming out can help us recognize and see it.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on this show may be triggering. Ple...
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May 29, 2025 • 17 mins
This week, Alexandra chats about compassion fatigue and how this can apply to the grief process. Compassion fatigue is often related to those in helping positions and careers. She posits that grief provides a great opportunity for compassion fatigue to creep up. The symptoms can look like other things and really be about compassion fatigue.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at ...
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May 21, 2025 • 11 mins
This week Alexandra talks about the loneliness that can arise with loss. There can be a deep seated loneliness from childhood experiences that pile up or there can be a loneliness from losing someone who you were close to. Either way, there is help and support available.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on this show may...
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May 14, 2025 • 20 mins
It can be easy to get sucked into the negative parts of grief. Our moments of joy create a chance for us to grow around our grief. This week, Alexandra talks about moments of joy she has experienced that she never thought she would.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on this show may be triggering. Please seek professional hel...
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May 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Sometimes life hands us experiences that are awful and challenge us. Awful feelings can arise and we have a choice in how we want to handle our feelings and respond. Often, we go to blame. Blaming people. Blaming things. All this does is deflect from really feeling the feels and working through them. Life happens for us, not to us.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@f...
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April 30, 2025 • 12 mins
This week, Alexandra chats about the period of time after a grief burst or a time of stress that she calls the Let Down. What this looks like is different for every person but can involve exhaustion, a need for rest and taking time to recharge and repair.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on this show may be triggering. Please see...
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April 23, 2025 • 14 mins
This week, Alexandra talks about how individualized each grief experience is while also highlighting similarities of the grief journey. There are some elements of grief that can be similar among people which hopefully encourages community and unity.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on this show may be triggering. Please seek professio...
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April 16, 2025 • 29 mins
This week, Forward to Joy has officially been around for 100 episodes! This is such a huge accomplishment for Alexandra and to celebrate she shares the top 10 things she has learned since Shawn died and also since starting this podcast. This is one you’ll want to save and listen to multiple times. <3
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forwardtojoy.com.
Portions or topics on ...
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April 15, 2025 • 46 secs
Hi, I’m Alexandra Wyman, and welcome to Forward to Joy.
This podcast was born out of my own journey through grief, healing, and finding a way to embrace joy again after deep loss. I created this space to have real, honest conversations about the messy, complicated, and beautiful process of navigating life after loss.
Each week, I’ll be sharing stories — both my own and from incredible guests — that shine a light on grief, mental h...
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April 9, 2025 • 15 mins
This week is short and sweet as Alexandra chats about the importance of reading the room, especially with grief. When experiencing a loss, we get to decide what we want to share, when and how. It is not okay for others to project their discomfort onto us nor ours onto them. Be empowered to work through your grief the way you need to.
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy.com, or send her an email at alexandra@forward...
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April 2, 2025 • 48 mins
This is one of Alexandra’s favorite episodes, and such a good reminder as the weather starts to get warmer. It's also good to have favorite episodes for when a podcast host loses her voice. Hopefully, Alexandra will get her voice back soon and will be back to new episodes. Enjoy!
Connect or Work with Sabrina: Bodiesbybrina.com
Instagram: @bodiesbybrina
Podcast: Veggies and Vices
Connect with Alexandra on her website, forwardtojoy...
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