Social Connection

Reflections on the impact of family, relationships, and cultural influences on health

Exploring the impact of relationship on wellbeing

In Western societies, wellbeing is usually based upon a highly individualised model of health. The starting point is an assumption that you are an individual physical being, and this brings with it an automatic belief that you are ultimately responsible for your own experience of life.  So, if you are not having a good life experience, then there is a belief that you need to change, or accommodate to the circumstances that you find yourself in.

On an individual level this may be highly relevant - like when it comes to taking accountability for your own actions, questioning your beliefs, or changing unhelpful relationship patterns that you may have learnt from the people around you.

However, when you reach a certain level of insight, and you begin to move into a more existential view of life, then you may find this individualistic model to be limited. What if you are already aware that consciousness is the fundamental nature of reality, and you have a different worldview to the mainstream one?

When you begin to see yourself as also being part of a deeply inter-connected web of life, then having a highly individualistic perspective on life, relationships, and therapies may feel mis-aligned with your spiritual beliefs, and can be difficult to navigate. How do you work through a medicalised system of wellbeing without falling into the trap of unhelpful spiritual beliefs? Or how do you learn to cope with the inequalities and traumas which are part of life, but which are outside of your personal control?

Learning to navigate relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and wider society can be challenging for empathic people, and this pathway will help to guide you through it.

Navigating Relationships, Cultural Norms, and Inter-Connection

Healthy Connection and Relationships

Some of the topics we can explore: