IMPORTANCE OF CONNECTION

As people around the world are now finding it more difficult to reconnect, loneliness has become a new friend to many. Grabbing a coffee seems like a chore, reaching out to old friends can feel intimidating, and organizing an event can feel downright draining, even to the most extroverted of people. With this new reality, how do we reconnect to the ones we love? How can reviving our connections with others help ourselves in the process?

Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor and storyteller, performed her viral TED Talk titled “The Power of Vulnerability” in 2010. After six years of researching thousands of interviews and stories on human connection, Brown determined a link between emotions of belonging, shame, and vulnerability. According to Brown, vulnerability is the sole catalyst for cultivating deep and sustainable relationships. While opening up can provoke internal feelings of fear or shame, it’s simultaneously the only gateway to true joy and belonging.

The turbulent events that affected many over the past couple of years have given us the unique opportunity to bond and relate to those who live thousands of miles away. Vulnerability is a universal language. Having the courage to openly speak about heartbreak, pain, or sacrifice is the most human thing we can do. In a world full of social media facades, false marketing, and unreliable government agendas, people crave honesty and truth more now than ever.

In our modern world where the pressure on making connections for our personal and professional lives is mounting, approach making new connections with the same mindfulness and patience you’d want to be approached with yourself. Vulnerability can be brought on from different situations based on different people. While one individual might experience vulnerability only when asked a personal question, another individual might experience the same level of vulnerability while simply asking a question during class. Learning to embrace moments of spontaneous vulnerability is the only way to establish the connections you’ve always wanted. The connections you’ve always dreamt of having only exist on the other side of that fear.

If you’re looking to rekindle friendships instead, try reaching out to your old t-shirt friends. You know that old t-shirt that you’ve had since high school? It’s probably cotton, oversized, and washed to softness. In this t-shirt, you are your most comfortable self. It’s been with you during sleepovers, breakups, and graduation, during both your highs and lows. These friends understand you to your core and have your back through anything. Fulfilling relationships with close friends benefit both your body and mind. Friends offer emotional support, motivate you to live your best life, and choose to love you for you.

While connecting with friends is vital, connections with strangers can be important in a different way. Casual conversations with people we interact with while taking an Uber or walking down the street can have a major impact on our mood. campuses, work staff at your place of employment, or online resources are all incredible places to seek out support in your community. The girl that pays you a compliment in passing or the woman that holds the door are important interactions that affect our mental health by giving us a sense of community in a world far bigger than ourselves.

We need to appropriate the act of leaning on our communities to process the traumas that we experience, knowing there will be someone who can support our emotional weight when we really need it. Faculty on university campuses, work staff at your place of employment, or online resources are all incredible places to seek out support in your community. More time gave many the opportunity to explore new hobbies and passions. Some became experts in baking bread while others tried their hand at being baristas. Online shopping turned hallways into catwalks, and writing, dancing, exercising, and painting were all healthy and enjoyable activities that people dove into to pass the time.

Now, as life returns to its busy pace and the stresses of going to work, attending classes, and maintaining a social life resume, these activities we used as an escape fall by thewayside. Coffee is chugged first thing in the morning, bread is bought presliced, and meetings and appointments take up all of our free time.

Rather than forgetting about our new hobbies, we can use them as a way to reconnect with our loved ones and make new connections as well. Attending a painting class could be a great way to explore a new passion and connect with new people. Baking bread for a friend could be a heartwarming gesture and heading to a yoga session with a coworker could be a great way to create a community. Ultimately, although friends and strangers can help us heal, we need to take the first step in overcoming our loneliness and reach within ourselves to do some difficult internal work. We need to learn who we’ve become and how we’ve changed in order to restore our mental balance and clarity to present our best selves forward in our academics, career, and relationships. Connecting with others is just as important as connecting with your own body and mind. The important lesson flight attendants repeat during their safety demonstration is true: always remember to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.