Mental Health a Community Matter

I recently shared this sentiment on social media, and the responses to it made something very clear: many of us are feeling the impact of what has become a highly transactional culture, especially in digital spaces. From DMs that are barely disguised sales pitches, to online community groups that are exploited as pipelines for promotion, to AI-authored “SEO friendly” blogs, the line between community and audience has been blurred.

 

Community – feeling a part of something – is the essence of human nature. We don’t exist without the people around us. Feeling seen gives us acknowledgement that we matter.

 

 

We want to be seen, heard, and valued. Not for what we can do, not for how we look, but for who we are.

 

I love bringing people together and building communities. It makes the world feel safe to me, and it brings me joy to see when people support one another.

 

Over the past few months, my husband and I have been privileged enough to experience the beauty of community.  We received an outpouring of support from several neighbors and friends when trying to resolve a serious dispute with a contractor that ultimately became an entire debacle. We simply could not have solved it without the support of our community, and the community response was overwhelming.

 

This situation took all my focus and energy, and in the midst of that, we decided to relocate to a new city for a professional opportunity.

 

No move is easy, but our friends and the community around us helped in every way they could. We felt seen, supported, and loved. And even though no one wanted us to move across the country, everyone saw the opportunity for us and celebrated that.

 

 

In a world that seems more divided than ever, having people come together despite their political differences creates an environment of hope and strength. It opens the opportunity for people to have conversations.

 

When you truly see someone, you make it impossible for that person not to see you as who you are. When we meet on a human-to-human level, we work together.

 

According to Social Identity Theory, our identity is shaped not just by who we are individually, but by who we are together  as a society.

 

The problem that we are currently facing is that, living in an individualistic culture, it is easy to abandon the idea of community.

 

It doesn’t take a lot to build a community, but it does take presence and awareness.

Sometimes the first step is to find a common ground. Over the past few years, while living in Kentucky, I made it my goal to engage in conversations with people with whom I generally disagreed. I wanted to understand their perspectives and the thought process behind them.

 

There are very few who are unwilling to engage in human interactions. All you can offer is sympathy and compassion.