How do you connect with support when you feel alone?
We can easily fall in the role of the “outsider,” the one who doesn’t fit. Or feel alone in our journeys, which can at time feel more like exhausting battles. One that we may feel we are failing at or losing miserably. We could use a support team in these moments of exhaustion, doubt or loneliness.
I notice this for expats and immigrants this is even more so. We may have less access to supports, or feel less understood by our new or previous contexts. It may be our situation or context has changed, we’ve changed, or others have. Sometimes we face elements of all three forms of change. Either way, we can quickly find ourselves “outside the norm,” each of us have different reactions to this. For some it is painful to sense the disconnection, for others it is a relief from the group expectations. In both cases the experience of being outside of the norm can give freedom and stress.
As we navigate our journey, it can feel very isolating and lonely, it is important to remember who is “on your team”. By team, I mean, who supports you? Cheers you on? Has got your back? Or maybe shows the way? In the last women’s group, we explored how we respond to others, adjust or not, and how it is to be outside of the group? We then touched on the idea of a support team. What would you want from the people who support you?
In our next group we will explore this further. Who would you want in your support team? I invite you to think about:
1. Who inspires you? this may be a writer, a quote, a person, a higher power and/or a group?
2. Who cares about you? It can be family, friends, an old teacher, neighbor, coach, alive or not. Even an old pet, character from a movie or a book.
3. What does each person/being in your team do to display their support in their unique own way?
Your support team is not about telling you what you did that is “good or bad.” You are “good enough” whatever the situation is or whatever you do. They are there to remind you that no matter what happens you are worthy so and encourage you to let keep going, dare, rest… whatever is helpful for you to be connected to life.
Allowing yourself to receive help especially in vulnerable moments is a powerful gift. It connects us to gratefulness, joy, others and more importantly life.