Kanata Chiropractic Centre

Life Changing Group Work

Posted by: Marcelle

We often talk about changing your life, becoming empowered and living with purpose. All these terms are optimistic with that the key ingredient of hope. But what other ingredients are needed? Today I’ve got a thought on how groups improve lives, increase creativity, and in turn through the ripple effect, change the world.

When I say ‘form a group’ you might consider something that’s reactionary; the powerless joining to tackle the powerful. But let’s flip that around so it applies to your everyday life. A group (be it your family, a support group, a friend network, or your work colleagues) should not simply generate power, but empowerment. Finding others who support your goal is like pumping supreme gas into your car engine – it brings you to a better level of functioning; you not only have a goal, but you have the support to take a risk.

What kind of group is best? Well, whether you’re striving to find your purpose or simply have a relaxing and supportive atmosphere, the following three aspects are key:

• Find a shared identity. Whether it’s your friends, your family, your colleagues – realize what brings you together and how your personal goals contribute to that overall commonality. Say you’re in a writing group (just pretend), your aspirations of freelance journalism will help encourage other writers going through the same trials and tests. If a group shares a common purpose, they’ll also share common anxieties – and it’s great to know other people understand your feelings.
• Define goals. Things like support groups are excellent because it’s clear what goals are set for everyone. But even for less organized groups like families and friends, the goal can be to live together well, spend quality time, and remember to appreciate the good company. Remember what’s most important to your group. It will help reinforce your strengths, and in turn grow the strength that develops within yourself.
• Live your ideal reality within the group. Here’s the challenge: you want to change the world, start by changing your life. Within your support group there’s a chance to be the good friend, the activist, the writer, the achiever, the smoke-free-for-thirty-days member, etc. Groups offer bubbles in which you can grow your new identity before unleashing it upon the world. Live your ideal, and watch it seep into all aspects of your day.

These are three basic ideas taken from a paper I read on collective empowerment by Drury and Reicher in the Journal of Social Issues.

Do you work with groups to help obtain goals? What benefits do you find? What draw backs are there?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment if something’s on your mind.

Until next week!

Dr Marcelle

---