Sharing to Strengthen

Synthesizing ideas for blog posts can sometimes evolve into an elaborate process. Sometimes, English class provides seeds with potential directly. This Wednesday, as we entered class, we knew we weren't going to be stuck with mundane work about allegories. Our desks were arranged in a circular fashion, encouraging discussion amongst the participants.

That's exactly what we proceeded to do. Taking a break from our traditional English class structure, we all sat in a large group as a class, and just discussed with one another. With a primary focus on reflecting over the previous quarter we had completed, a large part of our discussion was over the the various struggles we each had throughout our quarter.

I greatly enjoyed being able to hear the opinions of other people about situations that I'm going through as well. Hearing viewpoints that I related to, along with those that I couldn't relate to, help to expand my perspective beyond its current state. As we all shared, I felt closer to everyone than I had before. After realizing how much I enjoyed listening to everyone share, I later went on to delve deeper into how this is incorporated in our societies.

There's actually many scholarly articles about bonding through shared trauma. Although I wouldn't necessarily consider school trauma, there sometimes are small resemblances. Majority of these articles focus on the psychological aspect of bonding, such as this research paper published in the Association of Psychological Science: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614545886. Other articles include a analysis of the neurobiological role played in bonding. Although quite a bit of the article requires previous neurological knowledge, a great example can be found in this article, specifically at Chapter 4: Implications of Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Through the Lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology.

With all of this research promoting this type of bonding, there are many resources available to help people safely share with one another. A currently popular resource is Calibrate360, which links people together and allows relationships to be built. If you, or a close friend, are going through any type of trauma, take a look at https://calibrate360.com/power-of-shared-experiences/ as a method to heal and strengthen relationships.