Grief, Sex and Relationships - with Josh Fox

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In this episode…

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What is grief, and how does grief affect relationships and our sex lives?

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What happens if we don’t integrate our grief?

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How to grieve in a healthy way, and why doing this can be beautiful

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What is a grief ceremony, and where can you find one?

How Grief Affects Relationships – (and Your Entire Life)

Grief can be tricky to notice because we don’t talk about grief much as a society. For the most part, we don’t even acknowledge it exists. Grief is different from the sadness you might experience when watching a movie, and it’s possible for you to experience grief and not know it from all kinds of things (not just a loved one passing away).

Unresolved grief can impact your romantic and sexual relationships, your family relationships, your work life, and how you feel as you go through your day… which in turn has a subtle impact on every single decision you make. It does this on a mostly unconscious level, impacting our life decisions without us even knowing it. It’s a big deal… This is part of the reason Fox has devoted a substantial amount of his health care practice to helping people work through their grief.

Resolving Your Grief Makes Life (and Sex) Amazing

How do you resolve your grief? It’s not something that’s easily described in a paragraph, but actually allowing yourself to FEEL emotions can be a good place to begin. This can be challenging though, because almost every message we get from society says to NOT feel your feelings.

It’s so important to actually allow your feelings to move, so they don’t get stuck in your body. When you do resolve your grief, it creates incredible openness in your body, mind and heart for deeper relationships, better sex and just generally feeling more alive and healthy! In this episode we go deep into lots of ways you can work with grief (you don’t have to go to a grief ceremony to resolve your grief either, but it’s a good option if you’re able), and even if you don’t think you have any grief under the surface, I’d suggest listening. Grief shows up when we least expect it, and it’s helpful to understand how it works..

What is a Grief Ceremony?

In this episode, Fox describes the grief ceremonies he facilitates as day-long events that start with authentic connection exercises and embodiment practices to get you really present and in your body. Then the grief ceremony moves into a more emotive phase where the process of grieving (actually crying, yelling and screaming) can happen in community. There is an ancestor/grief altar where you can place images of any deceased loved ones, and you’re invited to visit this altar throughout the ritual whenever you feel called.

Grieving in community is an important part of this ceremony, because it normalizes the process of grief, and it provides support for everyone to see and actually feel in their bodies that they are not alone. Grief is a shared experience with all other humans, and on the other side of grieving is great release and the potential for more joy and pleasure than you’ve possibly imagined.

Josh Fox Standing in Center of Circle of People in the Woods Performing a Grief Ceremony

*In this image, Fox was leading a group of participants through a self-connection exercise before the full grief ceremony began.

If you want to go deeper after listening to this episode, visit the recommended resources and Fox’s links below:

Resources mentioned:

“The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief” by Francis Weller
“Atlas of the Heart” by Brene Brown

Fox’s Links:

Fox’s Website

Images of Grief:

In this episode I mentioned the photoshoot I did with some friends in my photo studio around emotional release (which includes grief), and I’d like to share three of those images with you here. There’s no acting… With this shoot we wanted to go into a deep, authentic, emotional state and then be photographed in that place – to normalize the concept and experience of emotional release. May these images enrich your life: