Family, these are arguably the closest people to us, the ones who know us inside-out and have our backs when we find ourselves staring into an abyss of nothingness; they stand side by side with us when we don’t know which step to take. Family in the nominal sense connotes biological attachments, but there are peculiar people we don’t share a biological bond with, but stick even closer than family and make us want to amend the definition of family as we know it. For these ones, we choose them but for family, we don’t.
That’s the difference. We love to hate family because of the cocktail of emotions that come with it. Family is synonymous with a cycle of endless conflicts, arbitration, reconciliation, and then love. The whole cycle plays out over and over again. Because most notably, they held your hand when you were born and will most likely hold it on your death bed.
Family is eternal and for most, the family is everything.
When the world changed and we needed to keep away from each other to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, the movement was put to a halt and for family members that lived apart from each other, it was impossible or not advisable to meet and share the warm moments that many love to have; but in spite of the situation, we still called, texted and had those conversations that are so dear to us.
With the family as our closest social circle and firmest support system, we get through a lot of things because of the love we receive, good family relations are pivotal in achieving good mental health and improved general wellbeing of an individual, research has shown that a majority of patients with serious mental illnesses reported that their families were the primary source of strength and a strong family bond may be the only thing one needs need to overcome their mental ailments.
So as good family relations are important to good mental health, strained family relations can cause problems in mental health, mostly for the lack of cushion to help neutralize the negative emotion that bulge into health-related mental concerns.
The festive season is here, it is important that we mend the mendable relations and cut ties with those that cramp our style, it’s important to define which relations are mendable and beneficial, and it’s also important to know which ones are futile, the important thing is that one looks out for themselves on a daily basis and makes independent decisions.
The human condition runs on co-operation and competition but it’s more of co-operation than the competition when it comes to functional families, and so good family relations come in handy when the world’s competition takes its toll on you.
Since we still find ourselves amidst the fight of our lives against a virus, we might not be able to see family as much as we want to, but technology may somewhat help remedy the situation and keep us connected, albeit virtually but we take what we can get for the good of everyone.
Happy holidays!!
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