Emotional space and the power of community

A few weeks ago, my friend and I were contemplating about the idea of
having a weekly resonance to interact on regular basis with mind alike
audiences, where we would echo our thoughts on various subjects and topics,
including morality, positivism, personal development, science and religion. As
a very starting point, today we would like to tackle the vulnerability of the
two core society values: emotional space and the power of community.

In a normal day of life, we are surrounded by technology, heavy virtual
communication and consumption of a valuable time following news, social media
posts and stories that gives us a perception of living in an increasingly busy
and strange world. Inevitably, this trapping pressure yields limitless mind
drawing attention and grip, that contributes to added confusion to the modern
life.

Consequently, many people in this perplexing world will find themselves
isolated and emotionally drained. Beyond the burdens of virtual reality, someone
will face challenges of time filled with pressure of work, family
relationships, financial troubles, social and health issues and adding here the
strangling power of vanity (the desire for looks and possessions) this poor
fella is all but lost and finds it very hard to give space to a partner, friend
or family. All sense of community and social being is now vanished and he finds
himself misplaced in its own world.

This person lives in a place where the global culture shifts more and
more toward the individual and material aspects of life, were people start to
neglect spiritual congregation, piety, community talks as a healing therapy,
and relationships with each other will start to suffer as a result of the new
paradigms created.

So how do we get out of this, and how do we begin to let ourselves
slowly open up and share with others the emotions that bother us, and fix those
thoughts that burden us?

Recent scientific research suggests that urging people to meet and talk
about the moments where they were engaged, share memories that brought them
happiness, connection and purpose, led to a profound shift in people’s values.
It made them realize that we are social beings first and foremost, meant to
share and give, cooperate and built teams. Our ancestors knew this all along,
and they were brilliant in utilizing it and overpowered all struggles of life.

Furthermore, a study by Robert Emmons, Professor at UC Davis, found
that just by writing down positives from our week, once every Friday, for ten
weeks, we could improve our immune system, get better sleep, feel less lonely,
become more compassionate, and enrich our relationships (Jennifer Moss, 2021).

Fortunately, we may still find many cultures that yet respect the power
of community and of the shared values. And on this aspect, in the Muslim
society yet you can find highly preserved norms instilled with divine juncture,
called Friday`s prayer, a community gathering at a particular hour of the day,
that makes people come together to pray, meet and connect. It gives people the
chance to talk on how they did during the week, what bothers them and what
makes them triumph, it gives them the sense of hope and makes them more
resilient. And by the way hope and resilience are two out of the seven
social-emotional skills that have been empirically shown to increase happiness
and performance. In other words, it is a very important weekly gathering that
among other things helps them find peace and tranquility and counter the
challenges of life with a purified heart and mind. Most importantly, during
this particular congregation people get to use the power of emotional space,
which practically means listening attentively and showing genuine care to the
others.

Thus, the quest to re-find the self, goes through a very simple road. Ignoring the machine that is designed to get us to neglect what is important about life, disrupt this negative pattern by meeting up with people, isolate the depression havoc, generating messages and use the emotional space to build on truly good values, offering each other support, encourage others to engage in quests for purpose and understanding.

This is the path towards rebuilding our lives and claim true freedom from the shackles of our own doings.

© Mindfluent