Contents
Psychology
Feeling that we belong to groups (family, friendship or interests) helps us live a fuller life, according to Guadalupe Gómez Baides, director of the European Institute of Well-being
If there is a time of year in which we live with more intensity the feeling of belonging to a group it is in the summer. Family reunions, plans or trips with friends (either alone or as a couple), return to the town or our place of origin, resume collective sports or leisure hobbies … We are social beings and social interaction guarantees healthy growth and evolution both of children as of adults, according to Guadalupe Gómez Baides, director of the European Institute of Well-being and creator of the Mental Efficacy Method. The expert emphasizes the fact that it is not, as some authors point out, that we have the need to socialize because we depend on each other to obtain resources, but that it is something that goes much further.
On the one hand, feeling that we belong to groups (family, friends, interests …) helps us to live a fuller life. And on the other, actually if you stop to think about some of the happiest moments of your life, it is likely that most of them have occurred in contexts of relationship (or rather, of connection) with other people. “When we flow in our relationships, we feel unparalleled well-being and happiness,” explains Gómez Baides.
It is also true that not everyone feels the socialization as something vital. While many people say they water their batteries by interacting with others, others value and even prefer their time alone. It is normal for these differences to exist, but above these preferences is, according to Gómez Baides, the need to relate, whether we are or are aware of it “because we are genetically designed to live in community.” Thus, the expert explains that it is our nature and that well-being and health are like a four-legged chair: physical health, mental health, emotional health and social health. “If we are missing a leg, the chair falls,” he alerts. But also in his opinion the social leg is not only essential to maintain the chair, but it is interrelated with the rest of the legs and contributes to improving mental and emotional health.
The isolation to which the pandemic has forced us has made some people doubt and others have become accustomed to having few interactions, but the director of the European Institute of Welfare insists that it is vital to recover social health, even if it costs us at first, because it provides the following benefits:
Benefits
- We improve self-confidence
- We develop empathy
- Listening to others, we have a ‘vacation’ from ourselves and our problems
- We feel more active and energetic
- We increase brain health: attention, memory, verbal fluency, sharpness …
- We reduce stress and anxiety
That is why the expert emphasizes the importance of finding a way to recover and enjoy face-to-face contacts to the fullest with the people we love the most. Of course, for reunions with friends and loved ones to be truly effective and rewarding, it is important to follow a maxim: respect for ourselves and others. “We have to increase our tolerance to respect any position that others have. They may prefer a greeting from a distance, bumping their elbows, a hug (with or without a mask) … What if we play not to judge the other? Your preference is based on your life experience and how you have lived this past year and a half. Although it may be similar to ours, no brain biochemistry is the same as another, and each person thinks the best they can and what their neurons allow, ”argues Gómez Baides.
The expert’s recommendation in this regard is to emphasize “what unites us” and to focus on “enjoying sharing.”
As important as respecting others is respecting ourselves, because it is essential to be clear (and also know how to verbalize) with what greeting or with what situation we are going to find ourselves comfortable. “If any show of affection bothers me, we must say so as soon as possible. And if I prefer that we sit apart, I must let you know. It is important to verbalize what makes us feel comfortable because if we don’t, we will tend to limit social encounters and we won’t benefit from the positive effects of the interaction, ”he clarifies.
If, in addition, these social interactions take place in nature and outdoors, the equation is complete because, as Gómez Baides assures, this option allows reducing the anxiety of the reunion.