Tony Lynch is the Founder of the Memories of Us nonprofit, a supportive place for men in grief. Men are traditionally shown over and over in society that they can not be vulnerable. This negatively affects our communities. After experiencing devastating loss, Tony was on the brink of suicide. It took a spiritual awakening for him to get out of it. Tony shares what he was going through mentally when he was in grief, and he didn't even realize it had gotten so bad until it was almost too late.

Key Takeaways:

• Tony hit rock bottom in his life after the loss of several people in his life, including his son. He was ready for suicide.
• Men are told to 'suck it up' and keep moving.
• Men do grief differently. Tony tried to put himself through physically gruelling experiences to see if he could die.
• Men don't like being vulnerable. So, physical pain is used as a way to keep their mind off of their true emotional pain.
• Tony lost everyone he cared about at 26 years old. Life sucked. He knew it would be better to just leave this world.
• As Tony was sitting alone ready to commit suicide, he heard his name call out in the distance, but no one was there. This woke him up. He knows it was a spiritual intervention.
• If you want your men to be good men, you have to have open communication with them.
• Don't be ashamed to share who you are with someone else.
• Grief gets trapped inside us and it has nowhere else to go if you don't deal with it head-on.
• How did Tony take this grief and empower his community?
• Tony's nonprofit shows men that it's okay to grieve.
• Men don't talk. By not talking, you're stuck. Your family wants to help you, but they don't know what to do.
• When Tony lost his child, he stopped talking about it to other people. He didn't want people to know what he was going through.
• It's so easy to feel completely numb to the pain. But if you don't deal with your 'stuff', it WILL come around and bite you.
• You are important. You have someone in your corner. Reach out to Tony for support.
• Tony offers advice to a man in grief right now.

Resources:

Tony on LinkedIn

Memories of Us Podcast