Friendships are life sustaining

Life coach: Relationships with others critical for health

By Barbara Pierce

SilenceSmartphones, iPhones, iPods, cell phones, lap-tops — our world has dramatically changed.

We may be technological efficient, but our personal connections with others have changed and not for the better. We’ve become increasingly disconnected from friends, family, neighbors and organizations.

Women have fewer real friends than ever before.

In the past, women shared a lot more than they do today. They shared care of their babies, gathered food and cooked together. Women shared their lives intimately, and were a source of strength and comfort to each other on a daily basis, keeping each other resilient and happy.

Today, we’re isolated in our homes and busy in our jobs. When we get busy, the first thing we do is push away our friendships due to lack of time or energy. Things that bring us together are limited. Because of this, most of us are missing the beautiful healing and nourishment that comes from being with other women.

“We need other women,” stressed certified life coach Rebeccah Silence. Owner of Inspired Results in Whitesboro, she is known as the relationship guru, doling out expert coaching every Tuesday morning on KISS-FM in Utica. “There is such power in our connections with each other,” she added.

Experts say the strongest predictor for creating a fulfilled life is building healthy relationships with others.

Silence is an expert in helping others create fulfilled lives. In coaching sessions and retreats, she assists people to break down emotional blocks that may be holding them back, to heal their past patterns and remove faulty belief systems that keep them from having a fulfilled life.

The Nurses’ Study of Harvard Medical School found that the more friends a woman has, the less likely she is to develop physical impairments as she ages, and the more likely she is to lead a contented life. Not having friends is as harmful to your health as being overweight or smoking cigarettes.

Researchers also examined how well women functioned after the death of a spouse, one of life’s greatest stressors. They found that even in the face of this major life loss, women with close friends coped better than women who lacked close friendships.

Other research studied the survival rate of women with breast cancer. Those women with supportive friends outlived the women who were isolated by many years.

Connections run deep

We’re hard wired to connect with others — women especially. We suffer greatly when our social bonds are threatened or severed. We thrive when we can deeply connect with other women.

When women get together in small groups, it can be life changing. Taking time out from our busy lives and all the “clutter” of our lives and taking time to really connect with other women can be magic. It leads to positive energy results.

“Small groups allow women to experience healthy, authentic community — maybe even for the first time,” said group leader Julia Mateer online. “Life change happens through relationships — small groups are a perfect format to create the types of life-giving environments where women can grow.”

“Women are connectors,” said Leslie Parrott, family therapist, online. “They engage each other heart to heart. When women get in a room and dream together, the outcomes are so much larger than our individual dreams and movements.”

Silence knows the power of women connecting with women. “Personal growth seminars have become touchstones of my journey. I have learned that seminars work because women are helping and supporting each other. It’s the dynamic of coming together and allowing each other the safe space to heal that is really exciting,” she said.

The goal of her Inspired Results women’s weekend retreat in November is to help women learn how to create and live an intention-based life. Much of the positive benefits that

That’s what Silence offers in her Inspired Results weekend, set for November 3-5, in Fair Haven.

For more information, call Silence at 303-521-1413.