Intentional Community = Better Health (Part 1)

Intentional community = great community = better health

I am always taken aback at how a family, a group of neighbours, church members, etc can rally around each other during times of need. It’s beautiful and humbling to see. The research is clear that having people around you, protects and improves health. Yet it can be low on our list of priorities for the working adult. Why do we find ourselves denying such good medicine?

First, a bit about me:

I’m a Clinical Psychologist, I trained and practice in London, England, where I work with people from all backgrounds, faiths and socio-economic situations. The range of ways that humans have thought about the mind has always fascinated me and so I wanted to dive deeper. How might societies across the world conceive of ‘madness’? Is anxiety thought of in Uganda as it is in Ukraine? What wisdom might we glean from cultures across the world that could change our lives for the better? Let’s see what we find.

Modern life is pretty challenging. Many nations across the world are experience a challenging economy, which means that people are working more than ever just to maintain a reasonable standard of living. This means that people are spending less time investing in their relationships.
Physical spaces for people to come together, without charge, are becoming less and less available. Younger people are struggling to leave their parents homes and when they do, house/flat sharing appears to be the most viable option. I can go on and on. However, though it is tempting, the world will feel more bleak if we spend days and weeks without connecting with other humans.

A quick look at the research.

The psychological literature is clear - our health outcomes are better when we spend time with people we like.

Thoits (2010), looks over decades of research and concluding that the impact of negative stressors (including trauma, illness, etc) can be undermined by social support.

Fukukawa and others (2000), report that social support can leave people with greater self-esteem and positive perceptions of one’s selves.

I recently came across Ajit Avashti’s paper (2010). He outlines that India, despite it’s diverse cultures and practices, prioritises the family unit as a resource for good health and recovery. Avashti (2010) calls for professionals to better enable families in supporting loved ones with mental health challenges. Avashti goes on to share examples of how mental health services have involved family members into treatment practice throughout history.

Now, if you shudder at the thought of recovering from a rough time by spending time with your siblings, not to worry.

Hudson, Lucas and Donnellan (2021) more recently looked at the types of relationships that can impact our sense of wellbeing. Their work was inspired by research indicated that spent with one’s romantic partner may be more psychological taxing than otherwise. So Hudson and team looked at this more closely. They observed how people’s mood changed when spending time with a person of each type of relationship: colleague, romantic partners, friends, children. The findings were that people reported the highest levels of wellbeing in the company of their friends, romantic partners and their children; respectively. However, there wasn’t much difference between the experience of wellbeing reported with each group.

In other words, wellbeing improved, regardless of who people spent their time with.

Take away:

Looking for a boost?
Make plans with someone you like this week.

You’ll feel better for it 😁 

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This is an ongoing project of discovery, so if you have any burning questions, ideas for how this newsletter could be better, or want to partner with me - get in touch. My inbox is open.

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There are big plans for this project, so please stay tuned.
Look out for the next newsletter.