Self-care is the time you take to nourish your body, soul, and spirit. It’s the time and action you dedicate to yourself for love, growth, and pleasure. Healthy self-care helps us to establish a foundation of peace to live from. Self-care is taking the time to prioritize the things that we need to show up in life as our best self for us and others. Self-care has many parts to it and it’s not only the fun things we do for enjoyment but it’s the things we do to heal, face fears, mature, and the things we do to be who God created us to be.
Community and connection are important pieces to self-care that are often overlooked. They are often overlooked because when we consider self-care most times we think about things we do alone or with a specific friend group. This is great but being able to establish community and connection in other ways are important to our mental and emotional well-being.
It is with this in mind that I have continued to facilitate The Journaling Hour. The Journaling Hour was initially a way for me to encourage self-care through journaling. The plan was to do it for the month of October but after so much positive feedback I decided to continue with it and it has turned into a platform of self-care through community and connection.
According to dictionary.com a community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. It’s a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. A quote that I read on Quara.com said that a community is filled with a diverse group of people who come together either physically or virtually to support and engage each other forming a sense of belonging and shared identity.
A community is a place of camaraderie and accountability and that is what The Journaling Hour offers. It is my hope that The Journaling Hour is creating a safe space to gather to gain knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the thoughts, emotions, and feelings that we have on this journey called life. As the Journaling Hour community grows I believe that we can form healthy connections.
To connect means to bring together or into contact so a real link or bond can be established.To be able to connect means to be mutually open and available. When we are able to establish a healthy connection it creates a place of unity and unity is good and pleasant. When we establish a healthy connection we are able to be empathetic, compassionate, and empowered. Healthy connections help us to feel seen, chosen, heard, and understood and it creates an atmosphere of gratitude. A healthy connection provides the safety for us to be our true authentic self. Being able to share stories as a group helps to build a sense of connection. Being connected with others also helps to boost our mood and improve our overall physical and emotional health. We are created for connection. When we connect with others it can decrease loneliness, and increase feelings of fulfillment. When we connect we are present in the moment and aware of the experience we are having. When we take the time to be intentional and make these meaningful connections with others it nurtures our body, soul, and spirit, this is self-care.
We must be intentional about taking care of ourselves and part of the intentionality is becoming aware of and learning about the barriers that keep us from being our best and healthy self. It is important to identify the things that may be preventing you from joining a community and finding connections. The following are things that may hinder healthy connections:
- Low self worth
- Insecurities
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Pride
- Social awkwardness
- Trust issue
- Unhealed trauma
- Negative world views
- Lifestyle barriers
- Lack of opportunity.
These are just a few things that stand in the way of connection. What are the things that have prevented you from being a part of a community and establishing healthy connections?
When we become aware of the things that hinder us from being a part of a community and establishing connections it will give us insight into the steps we need to take to overcome. Here a few ways to overcome the barriers:
- Identify what the barriers are, if need be get support to help you with this
- Choose one barrier at a time to work on.
- Work on your communication skills, with an understanding that communicating also involves active listening,
- Identify safe people and safe places to work on connection (repair to rebuild old one, be open to new ones by attending church, hobby groups, workshops, be open to creating the space/opportunities, step out and try new things, explore).
- Assess your life for lifestyle and personality changes. Sometimes we don’t have meaningful and healthy connections because of flaws that we have in our character. Are you angry, always causing drama, constantly complaining, distant, inconsistent, or unreliable. If so, these can hinder you from having the relationships in life that you desire.
- If you’ve made connections in the past reflect on these and see if you can repeat what you did to establish those connections
- Recognize and take advantage of the opportunities of community and connection that come your way like The Journaling Hour.
Being able to put some of these steps in place will help you to become a part of a community and establish meaningful connections.
Journaling Prompts:
- Is being a part of a community and having meaningful connections important to me? Why or why not?
- List the meaningful connections you currently have. What makes them meaningful?
- What’s one thing that you can do this week to work on becoming a part of a community and establishing healthy connections?
If you are interested in joining The Journaling Hour community contact me at tracynalory@heartfeltneeds.com or call/text (423)596-4186
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