Unlocking the Power of Belonging

When we unlock the power of belonging, we reach the ultimate form of freedom – freedom from having to change to be accepted and being appreciated and respected for being just who we are.

Unlocking the Power of Belonging

Just by looking around yourself, it’s impossible not to notice the importance of social interactions and belonging to human society. From our earliest childhood memories and throughout life, relationships are crucial to our sense of belonging.

Experiencing belonging, knowing where and with whom we belong, is integral to human existence. As children, we first belong to our family, then a cultural group, a neighborhood, and a wider community. This is what helps us, as human individuals, form and define our identities and shape who we become.

The innate need to connect and to belong is as old as humanity itself. Even though each of us is an autonomous individual with our own objectives, we are also members of groups – or endeavor to be. Groups that guide us, teach us, and sustain us.

People thrive in groups, and through social comparison, they define their sense of self and social identity. They even achieve their goals more easily than if they worked alone. Actually, in recent years, numerous researches have shown that social connection lies at the heart of physical and psychological health, yet few of us realize how important it is.

An Illness of the Body and the Mind

Lonely people are more prone to anxiety, depression, and overall antisocial behavior, as well as other physical and/or mental health issues. According to Mavis Tsai, a clinical psychologist and research scientist and an Associate Director of the University of Washington’s Center for Science of Social Connection, loneliness “increases the risk of premature death as much as excessive smoking, drinking, and obesity.” The problem of widespread loneliness and the lack of social connection and integration has become so severe that it is now referred to as the ‘loneliness epidemic.’

Loneliness – a new Plague of the Modern World

A recent study done by AARP Foundation has shown that one in three Americans aged 45 and older is lonely. In actuality, it afflicts young and old alike. Though some individuals love to think they are better off by themselves, most of humankind strives for connection and to be part of something. As Radha Agrawal explains in her book Belong, isolation is the new epidemic. We are more alone now than we ever have been before. There are too many ways to communicate. We are online, we’re offline, we are completely confused as to how we find our people in this world.

For loneliness to exist, two things are required – a lack of meaning in a person’s relationships (or complete absence of it) and a sense of self as disconnected from others. Modernity has brought us the freedoms we desired, but it also bro

…