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Group Support and Communication

Guest post by: John Toomey

Article Overview: Not got enough time for friends and family? What is this doing to your health and wellbeing? Hving a group of people who support you and with whom you can share is proving to be one of the most profound factors yet in supporting your wellbeing. Read on.a

Group Support and Communication

Group Support and Open Communication

Probably the most important factor in achieving and maintaining good health, Group support, Sharing and Communication are truly the most essential components of life.

Life has changed drastically over the past 50 years. Modern high tech communications and transport have lead to people spreading far and wide across the land. No longer do we live and grow up close to our grand parents and most of our relatives. No longer do we share that closeness, sharing and support that goes with a variety of blood relatives within just a few minutes. For many, life has involved growing up, often under the care of un-supported parents, then moving off after getting married to a location far away where real estate is affordable for a young couple. Long work hours mean little time for family and friends, extended periods in transit between home and work, and a great deal of aloneness.

With the loss of Group Support, Sharing and Communication, have come illness, loneliness, isolation and unhappiness. The social cost has been staggering.

Perhaps you choose Solitude in your life to stimulate learning and personal growth. That is ok, because it is a choice. However, if you are alone and it is not by choice, you are being denied an essential link to happiness and health.

A Study by Dr David Spiegel
In his study of women with metastatic breast cancer, one half of the women met in small groups for 90 minutes per week over one year. Five years after the study Dr Spiegel found that those who met in groups had twice the survival rate of those who did not.

Sharing Your Life
It is important to share your life. You don’t have to have a mate to share your life. A friend or a group of friends is just as good. Or, it can involve getting together with a group of people who are facing a similar challenge to yourself and sharing ideas and experiences.

Just as successful sports teams rely on team spirit and camaraderie, so too do groups of people facing a challenge. This is the power of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. In their book “Help Yourself to Health”, Neal and Carla Hoptman write, “A shared experience with someone who can relate to what we are currently experiencing seems to resonate deep within our soul, and can begin to break down walls of isolation.”

The Hoptmans go on to say that “We are social animals, and the key to our physical, mental and spiritual well-being comes from this feeling of being integrated in body, mind and spirit with all that is around us.”

Support – Finding the Keys to Happiness

Consider the following words. Where do they come into your life.


Intimacy & Openness
Company
Integration
Camaraderie
Honesty
Compassion
Help
Information Exchange
Community
Love
Balance
Motivation
Perspective
Feeling Supported
Having a Good Chat


Finding a Support Group

If you do not feel supported in your life and many of the previously listed aspects are missing, you are not alone. There are many people just like you out there in the world. What’s more, you probably already share part of your day with people with the same needs as you.

You can get a group together. It may take some work, and a bit of Creativity, but the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

Support Groups offer distinct advantages. These include:

 Empathy
 Support
 A chance to be heard
 Challenge to our view
 Gaining new Perspectives
 A chance to open up and unload “heavy” feelings
 A sense of Integration and Belonging
 Love, Friendship and Fun

Communication with Yourself

Before we can be a really effective member of a group, it is important to learn to communicate with yourself. Meditation, reflection and contemplation help you to look inside yourself and become aware of feelings, internal conflicts and emotions. Being honest with yourself is a key to learning the art of acceptance. When you learn to accept yourself as the way you are, you open yourself up to growth and development.

Finding or Creating a Group

Perhaps you already have a support group. Perhaps you have a group with whom you regularly meet that fulfills the criteria of being a support group without you ever having been aware of it. If you do not have a support group in your life, you can work toward establishing one.

 Identify at least two other people who may have similar needs or challenges to yourself.
 Invite them to join you in forming a group.
 Schedule a weekly meeting with rules, common goals and objectives.
 Agree to keep everything confidential so that people feel safe to open up.
 Honesty is crucial to the success of the group.
 Always finish on a positive note.

Life is too short, too eventful and sometimes too challenging to do it alone.

Reference: Hoptman, Neal and Carla, Help Yourself to Health, Millennium Books, Alexandria, NSW, 1996.

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