Welcome to the Wake the F*** Up podcast. We are so excited to welcome today’s guest, Alix’s husband David Long. David and Alix met as young widowed single parents in New Orleans after we lost our spouses. They recently got married and moved to Texas with our 5 blended children, three dogs, and one cat. David is the perfect first male guest for us to have on the podcast talking about grief, waking up, and what his healing journey has entailed.David kicks off the episode by sharing his journey through grief after losing his first wife to a brain aneurysm. And throughout this episode we’ll talk about the different journeys of awakening after experiencing trauma. David in particular shares how he initially resisted therapy but eventually sought help when he realized he couldn't handle it alone. Our conversation delves into societal expectations of masculinity and the importance of open communication in relationships.Alix, David, and Jami all share their experiences with societal expectations placed on relationships and how gender roles can hinder communication. And David wraps up the episode by reflecting on the importance for some men, including himself, of being asked what they want, and his realizing that he had never really asked himself that question before. We’ll unpack that and so many other insights into masculinity, grief, and waking up.Plus, We had so much to cover with David that we are making this a two-part episode. So please join us next week for the second half of our conversation, we’ll be diving more into David and Alix’s different grief journeys, and how they affected their families in different ways. David will also share some of the big takeaways he got in the early days of his therapy journey, and how therapy helped him understand things differently and make positive changes, especially in his family dynamic.
