Connection & Community
The Most Underrated Aspect of Healthcare
By: Patrick S. Cross, LMT, CPN, CET
Steam billowed from my cup as I tore open the tea packet. Inside the wrapper was a message;
“Do not rely on others for your own happiness. It all comes from within.”
While that might seem like an empowering statement, I couldn’t disagree more with this morning’s tea-box wisdom.
While I agree that we should not be completely reliant on others for our quality of life, it is important to understand that expecting to experience fulfillment, health, and happiness completely independent of human connection and community is a dire mistake.
Through my career in health care it has become apparent that human connection, though often overlooked, is a powerful driver of success in the healing process. Quality Social connection has been shown to improve immune function, boost cognitive performance, enhance creativity, and foster stronger resilience to stress. Basically we heal faster, think better, and handle challenges more effectively when we regularly engage in beneficial social interactions.
Interacting with others also provides us with insights that we might otherwise overlook, and a deep connection to community offers us what is arguably one of the most powerful aspects of a thriving lifestyle, a sense of purpose.
As health, creativity, resilience, and purpose are basic ingredients that bolster happiness and success, it appears the importance of other people cannot be overstated.
Conversely isolation, loneliness, and unhealthy relationships decrease our resilience and can even directly correlate to, or make worse, the process of disease and chronic pain.
Given this, it is interesting and concerning that one of the first things many of us will do when dealing with difficulty, disease, and injury is to isolate our selves. In a recent interview I did with Mandy Antoniacci, a Ted Talks speaker and author on the power of human connection, she described her own journey into self-isolation after her second neck surgery in as many years.
“We don’t want to be a burden, and we don’t want others to see this depleted version of us. We want to hide.” She said. “But this self-imposed isolation blocks us from the lifeblood of our healing and growth.”
So what is the solution?
Reach out, invite someone to go for a walk, or share a cup of tea. If that’s not readily available find a community and forge new connections. Start with doing this just one time. Then shoot for a second, and a third time. Healthy social habits start with just one step in the right direction.
Make quality human connection a priority, and a deeper sense of wellness and happiness may be closer than you think.
