Shared Links (weekly) Nov. 17, 2024
For more like this, subscribe to the newsletter and get everything I’ve been sharing in your email.
For more like this, subscribe to the newsletter and get everything I’ve been sharing in your email.
It sounds odd to me. But I realize that may be because I grew up and live in a society that doesn’t place enough value on friendship. If I want to value my friends more, why wouldn’t I do whatever I could to stay connected to my closest friends? Therapy could be a viable alternative to ending close friendships and losing connections that make a difference in our lives.
So, why not friendship therapy?
There’s no replacement for knowing your people and keeping in touch with them in the appropriate ways. Of course, a quick text message never hurt anyone if you aren’t sure. It’s not like most of us overcommunicate with our close friends and loved ones.
Unspoken in her article but implied by the risk associated with loneliness, we’d also do well to create more community. What I think takes many of these risk factors from challenging to overwhelming is when we are left to deal with them alone. We might see these trends reverse when we have the proper support and mental health resources, but we’re not there yet. Too many people are alone.
I suspect that he is on to something. It’s hard to create a community of people caring for one another when our workplaces demand constant availability, and our culture rewards people who are singularly focused on career or commercial success. This reminds me of something I wrote about early risers and their productivity a few years ago. I thought it was weird that in a profile of these “very successful” men, every one of them talked about getting up early to start working, planning out their days, sending emails to their team so they’d be waiting for them when they got to the office, etc.
What was missing from every single person interviewed in the story? There was no mention of a family. None of these men talked about having breakfast with a spouse, taking their kids to school, etc. None of them mentioned having friends. Their entire goal was to get a head start on work so they could get ahead. And here we were, writing glowing profiles and encouraging everyone to live like this.