The Benefits of Women Supporting Women
Today’s world is fast paced, driven, and - for some - isolating. Even though we are connected through social media and smartphones to everything and everyone around us, that type of connection is too often surface deep and can leave us feeling alone while the world rushes on. Many women find themselves caught up in this rush of life until one day they are hit with loneliness and the need for connection, friends, and encouragement. Unfortunately, that loneliness can be crippling causing depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, and even abandonment. That’s where women supporting women comes in. We love our families, our spouses, our children, but there are unique benefits from coming together as women to support one another.
The biggest obvious benefit to women supporting women is friendship. This is fundamental to a human being’s happiness, and for a woman it can be an essential part of a balanced life. Oftentimes other women are the necessary sounding board to get through a personal struggle. While many of us want to unload everything on our significant other, sometimes the girlfriends are the ones willing and able to hold the bucket, so to speak, and usually you just need to sift through it with somebody anyway. Good friends are perfect for that.
Companionship is another essential component to a balanced life, and companionship between women is very different than that between partners. In many ways, we women provide a foundation for support without even realizing we are doing it. Our closest friends know we’ll be there for them at three in the morning if need be. We’ll hold them up when they can’t seem to find the strength to hold themselves up. Sometimes that companionship is the only way to get through the day.
Women are also phenomenal healers. Usually this comes through listening, which seems to be a skill most women are already good at, but healing also comes through shared experiences. As mothers, wives, working women, single moms, partners, and all the many, many roles women play, we have a vast number of shared experiences. Coming together and sharing those experiences with one another facilitates healing, it reminds us that we are not alone in this crazy world and this crazy life; for many of us, it’s a reminder that we are normal and healing is possible.
Of course, the benefits to women supporting women can really go on forever. We cheer each other on, cry when we need to cry, offer love when it is lacking, support when it is needed, encouragement when life feels like more than we can bear; these relationships are truly a gift.
Because these relationships are so important, we have partnered with The Dove Center to provide a group of women supporting women. Our support group began March 26th, 2019 and is still going strong. We invite you all to join us weekly at the Cherish Families building - 280 W. Township Ave. We meet every Tuesday at 1:00 pm. We hope that through this group many long and lasting relationships are formed, and that women find a place where they experience encouragement, support, and healing.
