How can your community impact your mental health? Does the community we’re in really matter when it comes to how we feel?
Let’s try something, close your eyes and reflect back on your experiences over the past year. While you’re reflecting notice who is there. Take note of the faces and people in your memories and notice how you feel having them there. Was it stressful? Did you feel supported? Notice how the people in our lives, neighborhoods and community impact our lives.
Communities can be sources for strength and well as stress. Our neighbors and friends, folx at the grocery and coffee shop, classmates and teachers all affect our lives, even if we aren’t fully aware of it. Research shows us that individuals who feel more connected to their friends, family and community report being happy, tend to live longer and carry less stress. Likewise the opposite can be true. Disconnect or tumult within friend, family or community groups can decrease happiness and affect our physical health.
So how do we develop a “mental health minded community?”
Start anywhere! You don’t have to do much work to begin building a community that’s more mental health friendly. There are a variety of places and ways you can start. Here are some examples:
