Dear Friends and Supporters,
I hope this message finds you and your family safe-doing the best you possibly can at this moment in time. As we pass an entire month of “sheltering in place”, I find my thoughts drifting to so many of you who have touched a special place in my heart. People who have lost a loved one and gave themselves permission to be vulnerable, sharing openly about their grief. I’m grateful to the many communities and schools that took a stand, made a difference, and started the conversation on suicide prevention and mental health. I want to assure you that now more than ever, The Brian Dagle Foundation is dedicated to our community, to be a source of hope, healing, and support in the weeks and months ahead.
Grief support groups are being held via Zoom. I assure you that I am committed to providing a safe space for people to share their losses and find comfort in knowing they are not alone. Having said that, sadly, losses in life continue to happen. New members are always welcome. All groups are listed on the event schedule at brianshealinghearts.org. Private grief support is an option via a phone conversation or Zoom. There is never a fee.
I’ve been working with Schools and Youth Service organizations to provide videos and webinars on suicide prevention and mental health. If possible, use some of this downtime as an opportunity to educate yourself and your community on the risks and warning signs of suicide. Please let me know how I can help.
Finally, I can’t end this message without saying this to all of you. Our minds and hearts are spinning with an overload of information coming at us in all directions. At any given moment, we all are doing the best that we can. Focusing and staying on task is challenging. Collectively we are grieving the loss of our life before COVID19.
Allow yourself to feel whatever you need to feel. Know that sometimes, it’s okay not to be okay. Please be kind to yourself.
It is my hope for all of us, that we will come through the other side. Quoting my favorite bear, “Remember, you are smarter, braver, and stronger than you ever imagined.” – Winnie the Pooh
With hope –
Ann
For more resources and inspirational ways to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, please click on the links below.
• Grieving Never Stops
• This Pandemic of Grief
• Coronavirus and the Six Needs of Mourning
The Brian Dagle Foundation has reached a momentous milestone. Five years ago we started with “Project Brian” whose sole purpose was to support parents who have lost a child and to provide support for people who lost a loved one to suicide.
It was through serendipitous events as well as the kindness of many of you that the foundation took roots in our community. Your support inspires us at the challenging and many times heaviness of a grief support group. It fuels us to educate anyone and everyone on suicide and mental health. To open the conversation and keep it going wherever and whenever possible.
We invite you to take a moment and explore our newly designed website. I’m am certain you will be pleased with the ease of navigation, the additional pictures that capture our events, and the resources to assist your with questions.
This grief support group is for young adults ages 18-29 who have experienced the death of a relative, partner, or friend. Join us for an opportunity to meet with others who are dealing with the various, and at times, the overwhelming range of reactions we can experience after the death of someone we love.
“How can I help?” I love that phrase. These words, I borrowed from the television program, New Amsterdam. Each time the profoundly warm hearted Dr. Max Goodwin met someone, he would ask, “How can I help?”
Four simple words, we can all live by.
Many of you reading this newsletter, are recipients of help from the Brian Dagle Foundation and Brian’s Healing Hearts. We’ve had the privilege of holding space for hundreds of people who are grieving the loss of someone in their life, providing a safe place for offer hope and healing.
The Brian Dagle Foundation had been at your school or workplace tohelp you understand with trainings on suicide prevention and mental health with evidenced based Gatekeeper trainings. The Lax2Live Lacrosse program for Suicide Prevention has been at at least 25 high school lacrosse fields, talking with the athletes, coaches, and fans as we share our story on the warning signs we didn’t see in our son.
Maybe you’d like to talk with Ann, host an event or fundraiser? Please take a moment to look through the recently updated website at
brianshealinghearts.org and wonder, how can we help?
Grief and Loss affect us both emotionally and physically. Through the use of gentle yoga poses, affirmations, and breathwork, the body has the ability to work through grief, moving it through our body, and allowing our broken hearts to heal. Understanding your grief and how it affects your entire being will be woven throughout the class. This popular workshop is open to individuals of all yoga levels who have experienced the loss of a loved one.
We are a group of survivors, together to offer support, comfort, and understanding. Our group provides an atmosphere of acceptance for exploring feelings that are often not understood by others. It offers a chance to share helpful resources, and to provide and receive support through the long grief process. Meetings are on the 1ST and 3RD Thursday of each month from 6:30-8 pm in Old Lyme.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. — Emily Dickinson
Recently, I spoke about hope.
It seems to be front and center in my life lately. On October 19, the Brian Dagle Foundation celebrated five years of “Anchored in Hope”. It was both a celebration and an opportunity to honor and thank all of the people who have given me hope.
It is also what we live by. If you could distill the work we do in suicide prevention into one action, it would be manifesting hope.
The mission of the Brian Dagle Foundation begins with “Anchored in Hope”. It is both a term and an event that is a testament to the work we do in our grief support programs; an homage to the people who arrive at our door hopeless, wondering how they will survive their new world without their loved one.
Hopelessness – better known as depression – is a very real and tangible disease that we fight to cure in our daily work, and it starts with restoring hope. Hope that we can reduce the stigma and educate people to understand that death by suicide should not be treated differently than death by cancer, heart disease, or any other illness. Hope that we can encourage our friends, neighbors and peers to reach out and ask for help with the certainty and comfort of knowing that it is not a sign of weakness, but rather a desire to live with abundance, with joy – with hope.
There are times when our hearts are so shattered that hope seems so intangible, so theoretical, as though it is an idea rather than an anchor. Even the prospect of joy and happiness someday making a return in life may feel inconceivable, almost intolerable. For me, it was impossible. My world – at that time – was hopeless.
But now, like the mission of the foundation, the world I live in is anchored in hope.So I share this with you– I understand that right now, in your broken heart, there is no hope. But if you will, please let me or someone else in your life hold that hope for you. And it is my hope for you that slowly, maybe even unknowingly, once again, you will begin to feel hope in your heart. Then together, we will share that hope with people like us.
Wishing you moments of peace and hope in your heart- Ann
We are a group of survivors, together to offer support, comfort, and understanding. Our group provides an atmosphere of acceptance for exploring feelings that are often not understood by others. It offers a chance to share helpful resources, and to provide and receive support through the long grief process. Meetings are on the 1ST and 3RD Thursday of each month from 6:30-8 pm in Old Lyme.
The Brian Dagle Foundation will host a panel of speakers on Monday, September 30, 2019, from 7-9 pm at the East Lyme High School. Panelists will share their personal journey on the loss of a loved one to suicide and the survival of a suicide attempt. The foundation participates in community forums throughout Southeastern Connecticut.
Libby Baxter of Blue Healer Therapeutic Massage would like to share these tank tops as a special edition design with a message of purpose. Inherent in the ‘Healing Happens Here’ design is a tribute to a dear friend, and the purpose to promote awareness surrounding mental and emotional health.
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Libby Baxter of Blue Healer Therapeutic Massage would like to share these tank tops as a special edition design with a message of purpose. Inherent in the ‘Healing Happens Here’ design is a tribute to a dear friend, and the purpose to promote awareness surrounding mental and emotional health.
Libby Baxter of Blue Healer Therapeutic Massage would like to share these tank tops as a special edition design with a message of purpose. Inherent in the ‘Healing Happens Here’ design is a tribute to a dear friend, and the purpose to promote awareness surrounding mental and emotional health.