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Beth Flax

@bethflax

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Just a Midwest gal living new dreams everyday in sunny LA! ☀️🌴🌴☀️🌳🌳☀️🌺🌷☀️🌊🌊☀️

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LIVE FROM NAM.
Hanoi edition. It’s not all spring rolls and scooters.

🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
#goodmorningvietnam #hànội

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#vietnam #day #one

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September is #suicidepreventionawarenessmonth . A part of society that is often forgotten are the survivors of suicide loss who talk about their stories in an effort to help others, while also swallowing the reality that their loved ones did lose their battle to suicide.

Beth Flax @grieveandglowforward @bethflax shared her story of losing both her mother and her stepmother to suicide 12 days apart from each other.

As someone who's been speaking openly about mental health for a long time, as someone grieving her parental figures for almost 18 years now, Beth shared with us how she enters this conversation with grief and gratitude. Grief that never leaves and gratitude for hope and healing. We thank Beth for sharing her story with us, while acknowledging that grief support for survivors of suicide loss is a lifelong necessity. Even those who've practiced wearing their grief over the years need support, dedicated support for survivors of suicide loss, known as 'Postvention'.

Postvention is Prevention.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Beth.

If you'd like to share your story with us, please click the link in bio.

Video compilation by volunteers @nineplusvoices

#suicidelossgrief #survivorstoryshare #postventionisprevention #makingspaceforyou

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Have you lost a loved one to suicide and need support?
👥🫶👥

Is movement a regular part of your life or do you want it to be? 🏃🏼‍♀️

Perhaps you need an outlet to release the restless, pent up anger, sadness, energy, or frustration your body is experiencing? One that isn’t solely just sitting in a circle talking about your loss and trauma?

Then join me this fall for my grief movement community - a free walking grief group where we believe that movement is medicine and community is everything.

Join for the inhale, stay for the exhale. 😮‍💨

Visit emotion-mc.org/events/gmc-ca-playa-del-rey to learn more and sign up!

No platitudes. Just honest support with light movement to help you start rebuilding life on your own terms. 💜✨

📸 @luwinphoto
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A little about me, your E-Motion Inc. PDR Movement Community Facilitator:

I am a Certified Grief Educator (& Grief Coach In-Training) and I am about to tell you something that’s so unthinkable...

...so unimaginable...

...it usually pushes people away.

You ready? 👀

My mom and my stepmom died within 12 days of each other…😩

By suicide. 😳🎤

Yep - can’t make this stuff up.

I get it - that’s a lot.

And I tried a lot of things to deal with it.
Many didn’t help.
But one thing did.

I started to move my body to release the pent up anxiety, anger, and restless grieving energy that was coursing through me on the regular.

And it suddenly hit me…movement really is medicine! 🚶🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♂️ 🧘🏾‍♀️ 🏊🏿‍♀️

Physical activities got me out of my head and into my body, which helped immensely with regulating my nervous system, in turn allowing space in my brain to process the muck, fog and trauma I was facing.

You know what also helped? Finding a like-minded community to move with grief together…this increased the depth of my healing and provided support that I was unable to find elsewhere.

And if you’re a suicide loss survivor too, that’s what I want to offer to you!

A safe space where you can get out of your head, into your hands and feet and move with your grief in a community of others who just get it.

Nobody wants to be a part of this club, but if you are, you are not alone.

💜✨

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GOOD MORNING VIETNAM 🇻🇳

A once in a lifetime journey through one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Lotus Rising is a fully curated 9 day experience through Hanoi, Halong Bay, Da Nang and Hoi An, blending luxury, wellness, culture, incredible food, movement, adventure and the magic of traveling with a really beautiful community.

Every detail is thoughtfully planned. You don’t have to figure out the itinerary, the logistics, the where to go or what to do. You just show up, breathe it all in, and let Vietnam unfold around you.

ONE SPOT LEFT, September 11–19th

And please, don’t let money be the reason you miss this. If you feel called to come but the investment is the only thing holding you back, reach out to me. I offer payment plans, and we’ll find a way.

Come experience Vietnam.
This one is going to stay with us forever ✨

LOTUS RISING

karijaffe.com/lotusrisingvietnam
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#goodmorningvietnam #yogaretreats #nomudnolotus

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Today was the first time in years I’ve been on a playground swing. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure if I could still jump off. But I wasn’t scared either. And when I went airborne, it felt exhilarating. Light. Carefree. Capable. ✨

I haven’t felt that exact childhood sensation since before 2008…the year I lost both my mom and stepmom to suicide just 12 days apart. Grief has a heavy way of burying our lightness, making us feel like experiencing joy is a betrayal of the people we lost.

But 18 years into this journey, I’m reminded that healing isn’t about a destination where pain doesn’t exist. It’s about your life growing bigger around the grief and expanding your capacity to hold it all.

Today, looking at the palm trees against a cloudy gray sky, I felt the exact coexistence of a heavy history and an exhilarating, free present. I am living proof that you can live fully alongside your grief. 🫂

Whether your loss happened two weeks ago or two decades ago: give yourself permission to touch the sky today. You are strong enough to land. 💜✨
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Mental health, grief, grief support, grief coaching

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Real mental health protection is rarely pretty. 🌪️🍽️

Last month, during Mental Health Awareness Month, our feeds were flooded with pastel graphics, pristine yoga studios, and manicured routines telling us to just “breathe and stay positive” or “check on your strong friends.”

But as a Certified Grief Educator who has lived through compound suicide loss, I need to give you the uncurated truth:

“Awareness” isn’t enough.

Sometimes protecting your mental health looks a lot like letting the dishes pile up because your emotional energy went entirely toward surviving the morning.

Sometimes it looks like wearing the same shirt for two days because making a single decision about an outfit feels like a mountain you can’t climb.

Sometimes it’s canceling plans at the last minute because your grieving nervous system suddenly hit an invisible wall, and staying home next to a messy sink is your only safe space.

Healing isn’t a linear path toward perfection.
It’s a messy, loud, exhausting integration of love, complex emotions and deep loss.

If your journey looks more like a chaotic trench than a scenic trail today... you are doing it exactly right. Give yourself grace.

What does “real” mental health look like in your world today?
Let’s strip away the filters and talk in the comments. 👇

#mentalhealthawarenessmonth #griefjourney #lifeafterloss #grieveandglowforward #suicidelosssurvivor

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A gift?! 😱 You’re probably asking, how can grief be a gift?

It may have taken me 18 years to get there, but yes…I’m finally at a place where I can see the gifts of my grief and I’m honored to share that it can happen for you too…in time.

A few of these gifts for me have been:

🥰 increased empathy and compassion not only for myself but for others
😩 how to sit in discomfort
🙏🏼 gratitude for community

My 1:1 peer grief support books are open if you’re looking for a little extra help staying afloat right now.
📨 DM me for info.

Sending 💜 and ✨
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#grieveandglowforward #griefsupport #lifeafterloss #suicidelosssurvivor

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Meet Beth, our Playa Del Rey (CA) Grief Movement Community Facilitator. E-Motion Grief Movement Communities are peer-led, movement-based grief groups for anyone grieving the death of a person. These are 8-week experiences, rooted in movement, community, and ritual. You’ll meet weekly with your group to run, walk, or hike — working toward a shared distance goal that you’ll complete at the end of the 8-weeks. This could be a 5k walk, a 10k run, or a 6-mile hike.

🌟We’re currently accepting facilitator applications for our Fall Cohort🌟

This fall, we’ll be working with another national cohort of E-Motion Facilitators to lead Grief Movement Communities in their local cities. If you are called to hold space for others — while continuing to move with your own grief, the facilitator role may be for you. Learn more & apply on our website at emotion-mc.org/facilitators

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When a grief burst hits 🫁💔😵‍💫

your brain stops
listening to logic;
you have to speak to it
through your body.

Your chest tightens,
your throat closes up,
and your nervous system
goes into absolute lockdown.

In those moments,
the last thing you want to hear
is a generic wellness phrase. 🙅🏼‍♀️
Logic. Isn’t. Working.

In full transparency,
when the anxiety of
this anniversary season hits me,
I can’t think my way out of it.

If you watch this clip closely,
you’ll see my shoulders drop.
I am doing a double-inhale,
long-exhale sequence called
the physiological sigh. 💨

It is the exact
somatic tool I use
when the anvil feels
too heavy to carry.

You don’t need a
45-minute meditation routine.
You just need to trick
your nervous system
into hitting the brakes. 🛑

Try it with me right now on your screen:
1. Take a deep inhale through your nose.
2. Take an extra sip at the top of that breath.
3. Let out a long, slow exhale through your mouth.

Do it twice. Let your frame soften.

You do not have to
fix your grief today.
You just have to
let your body
breathe through
this micro-moment.

Save this post
for the next time
your chest feels tight.

And if you are navigating
a heavy wave right now,
drop a 🌊 in the comments
just to let me know you’re here.

We don’t have to carry the anvil alone. 💜✨

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#CompoundLoss #nervoussystemregulation #SomaticGrief #GriefAnniversary #mentalhealthawarenessmonth

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...a skunk protects its space. 🦨

If you look at my calendar right now, it looks like a minefield. 💣 From mid-May through July, I hit the anniversaries of losing my stepdad, an elder cousin, my dad, my uncle, my stepmother, and my mother and my other uncle. 🥺

It is an annual wave of compound losses that used to knock my nervous system straight into a high-alert survival mode. (And in full transparency, it still tries to.) 😵‍💫

Then I watched this little neighbor on my walk. They weren’t aggressive. They didn’t stomp or pick a fight. They just set a clear, unmistakable boundary and quietly slipped back into the trees. 🌳

When your emotional bandwidth hits absolute zero, you do not owe the world a single explanation. 🤐

As a Certified Grief Educator in the thick of my own heavy season - and with May being Mental Health Awareness Month - consider this your emergency permission slip:

✨ You are allowed to mute group chats, words, or accounts that make your chest tighten.
✨ You are allowed to say, “I love you, but I don’t have the capacity to show up for this right now.”
✨ You are allowed to put your phone on Do Not Disturb and let the world wait while you protect your remaining energy.

Drawing a hard line during a heavy season isn’t selfish.
It is somatic preservation. 🛟

Are you staring down a heavy anniversary season right now?
Comment SUPPORT below if you need a reminder that it’s okay to step back, lock the door, and protect your space.

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#compoundloss #nervoussystemregulation #somaticgrief #mentalhealthawarenessmonth #deathanniversaries

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Last night, I lit a Yahrtzeit candle inside my dad’s glass cobra sculpture. 🕯️🐍

In Jewish tradition, this 24-hour flame honors a loved one’s memory. But as I watch it flicker, I am holding space for a heavy truth: I am not just mourning his physical absence today... I am grieving the relationship that could have been.

Our connection was strained. I lived through years of his emotional neglect, constantly struggling to find a common ground where we could truly see each other.

The thing is…grief becomes infinitely heavier when society tells us we are only allowed to mourn saints. We are flooded with tributes to perfect parents, leaving those of us with complicated stories entirely locked out of the conversation.

As a Certified Grief Educator with plenty of lived experience, I’ve had to learn how to hold two conflicting truths at the exact same time:

1️⃣ I deeply feel the pain of his physical absence.
2️⃣ I still feel the lingering ache of the emotional safety he couldn’t provide.

Since his passing, I’ve realized his love language wasn’t emotional vulnerability. It was his relentless work ethic and the financial stability he fought to leave behind. He couldn’t give me what I needed emotionally, but he protected us the only way he knew how. And I love and accept him for that.

If you are navigating a death anniversary where the love was messy and the relationship was broken:

You are not doing it wrong.
You are allowed to miss them and still be angry.
Your complicated grief doesn’t have to be neat to be real.

I’m holding a spacious harbor for the complicated hearts today. 💞

If you are carrying a complicated loss today,
drop a single 💜 below.
No story or explanation needed. I will see you.

#grieveandglowforward #yahrtzeit #complicatedgrief #lifeafterloss #griefanniversary

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