Modern society is full of exciting opportunities and vastly changing life experiences. As a Coach, I think this is a very thrilling time to be alive. As an expert on the Human Condition, I do have concerns for the direction of our social well-being. I would say the human experience that I have seen impacted most in our recent modern society is the way we connect socially. Now, I’m not speaking of social media versus group activities and such. I am talking more about the value we seem to collectively hold in the social structure of things. At the surface, this may not seem like that big of a deal. However, the research on human development tells us this may not be the case!

A huge part of our physical and emotional well-being comes from our sense of belonging and the emotional and physical security we feel in social connections. Decades old research has proven the negative impacts a lack of human love and physical contact can make on a developing child’s physical and mental development. John Hopkins University teaches that human connection and social interaction are the #1 factors in making people more resilient to stress after a tragic or intensely difficult life experience. This means our social norms and structure for connecting, interacting, and respecting each other has a very real and incredibly direct impact on our ability to thrive as a human being in a human society.

It is clear that our social structure is shifting. This in itself isn’t the challenge. The challenge point comes in the maintenance of how we nurture human connection, both in personal physical form and in the regard we hold for others in general. As we erode the sense of security we feel in social settings, we erode our own personal sense of well-being. Life can feel more unreliable. Life stressors can seem more overwhelming, and our own physical well-being can begin to deteriorate. The irony is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can have meaningful and supportive connections in all the current social formats and structures that exist today. We can look for commonalities and ways to lift each other up. We can choose to be encouraging and helpful. We can also choose to remove ourselves from social settings (in any structure) that goes against our grain. The value in investing in the social well-being of our community is that it makes us stronger, both as a whole and individual. Changes are going to come. That is what makes life interesting. Unfortunately, the fundamentals of our human condition do not change as rapidly. We need positive, supporting social connections to thrive. We all have a responsibility to do our part to make this fundamental need something we can feel secure within. I believe our individual social responsibility is even higher now, for we no longer just impact our tiny community. What we say and do is literally sending impacts all over the world! Socialize responsibly, my friends. We need it.

– Life Coach Jessica