Welcome to March everyone!!!
I want to take this month to focus on the four components to building resilience.
The first one is connection.
Connection: Prioritize healthy relationships with empathetic and understanding people so that you are reminded you are not alone in the midst of difficulties. Having trustworthy and compassionate individuals who validate your feelings will support the skill of resilience. Be sure to accept support from those who care about you.
The teaching sheet that I found used this explanation for connection (you can download the sheet at the end of this blog).
Then, I found this article called The Importance of Connection (https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-importance-of-connection#benefits).
They stated, “Human connection is the sense of closeness and belonging a person can experience when having supportive relationships with those around them. Connection is when two or more people interact with each other and each person feels valued, seen, and heard. There’s no judgement, and you feel stronger and nourished after engaging with them.”
They go on to say that there are many health benefits by staying connected. It boosts your mood, reduces stress, and improves self-esteem. They did a study with over 580,000 adults and found that depression, insomnia, and cognitive declines were contributors to social isolation. Isolation can also increase our chances of death by at least 50%. Lack of human connection was found to be more harmful than even obesity and smoking.
There is more in the article, but I think you can see that connection is a human need and one that is compromised when you become a widow or widower.
I have said this since the beginning of my widowhood season, that grieving together made grieving so much better. I had the gift of worshiping with my church family for 17 days after my husband entered heaven, and I like to say that it candy-coated my heart. Community came to comfort me, and that kind of love broke through to a deeper place in my heart. That place has been longing for deeper connections with people ever since. It’s scary to be real and raw with people sometimes, but it’s also the higher way, I believe, and the more eternal authentic version of us to behold and become.
I would be remised to not speak on our connection with our heavenly Father.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
- Psalms 34:18 NIV
The Passion Translation says, “The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and he is always ready to restore the repentant one.” Yeah, I like that. The Lord desires to heal our hearts and make them happy again. The Father has come close to me as I have had to call out to Him minute by minute in the days and years that followed.
My desire is to create a community of widows who feel loved and not alone in this season of their lives. That they know there is a community to come and comfort them, who show up without judgment when in need, and that we come with empathy and compassion, for we have been there and we do not want another to grieve alone. Each story and experience is different, and so this is a very tender topic and community to tend to. The Father has been working on creating in me a contrite heart to have the capacity and tools to be able to honor each one of you in the way that you need most. This is a team effort, for connection truly matters. To the Father. To our families. To our church families. To our co-workers. To the committees we are involved in. They need you and you need them. It can be hard to continue to show up when you don’t feel like it, but please fight against that isolation syndrome, for it will only cripple your growth and your health.
Well that’s enough for now. Stay tuned next week as we focus on wellness in this series of Becoming Resilient. Much love to you and I hope to see you soon.
Until next time,
Keep Believing
Keep Braving
Keep Beaming