Today’s world is fast-paced, driven, and - for some - isolating. Even though we connect through social media and smartphones to everything and everyone around us that connection is too often surface deep and can leave us feeling alone while the world rushes on without us. 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 cripple - causing depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, and even abandonment. That’s where women supporting women comes in. We love our families, our spouses, and our children, but there are unique benefits we can enjoy by 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. For a woman, it can be an essential part of a balanced life. Often other women are the sounding board to get through a personal struggle. Most of the time, women understand each other on an emotional level different from a partner or children. 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 much of the time when women verbalize their struggles, they’re able to sift through the issue and find a solution. Good friends are perfect for holding the bucket until the solution presents itself.
Companionship is another essential component to a balanced life, and companionship between women is very different than that between partners. 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 we are not alone in this crazy world and this crazy life; for many of us, it’s a reminder we are normal and healing is possible.
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.
If you’d like an opportunity to build more connections and some lasting friendships, join us for our weekly group, Love the Woman You Are
