Belonging and Self Care

Belonging and Self Care<br /><br />"Fitting in is the opposite of true belonging – Brene."<br /><br />"True belonging doesn’t require that we change who we are; it requires us to be who we are. – Brene"<br /><br />“Connection: Connection is the energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment. Belonging: Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”<br />― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead<br /><br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly" rel="noopener">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly</a><br /><br />Sebastian Junger in his book Tribe says your tribe is “The people you feel compelled to share the last of your food with.” We all desire this – it’s part of the reason why we love shows like Seinfeld and Friends, Saved by the Bell, and Boy Meets World now his daughter in Girl Meets World. They all have TRIBES.<br /><br />Junger also notes that, “Lack of social support has been found to be twice as reliable at predicting PTSD as the severity of the trauma itself.”<br /><br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40940205-tribe?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2ZlikgI9Km&rank=1" rel="noopener">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40940205-tribe?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2ZlikgI9Km&rank=1</a><br /><br />Lieberman says, “Often, a friend’s primary value is the comfort of knowing we have friends. Despite the various ways friends can be directly useful to us, the fact that our friends are our friends is often an