Kati Morton

I prefer to be alone.

Or we want to be like the different person, the loner, the weirdo.

And where people are trying to take ownership over that.

But to this research's point, there's such a huge part of our society

creation as humans that are about us being connected and mattering to other humans.

Part of that, you could think back to caveman days that it would be in my best interest to be connected with you, John, and to have other people in our group

Because that would mean we would survive, right?

That was increased our ability to survive because you could be hunting, I could be gathering.

There's all these different roles that people play.

And I know people might say, oh, I hear that all the time and whatever.

But I think we devalue the impact of mattering, of connection with other people and act like it's not as big of a deal to our survival still.

I know we're not in caveman days, but I would argue that

Just as we were talking about all these things that can come up, whether it's the depression, the anxiety, the irritation with your life, all of these symptoms and signs that I think could be soothed.

And we could actually look into research on the polyvagal theory about how soothing to our system it is for us to be connected to other people, to matter to someone else.

How important, just think about how good it makes us feel if we're having a tough time and one of our friends calls to just check in.

or if we have a family member who comes over to see how we're doing, that is so impactful.

I remember when my dad passed away when I was 24 and my husband still brings us up because he didn't realize this was important is tons of people at the time when it happens, show up for you and are like, I'm so sorry for your loss.

And that's wonderful and beautiful.

However,

I will never forget the people who kept showing up like a week after, a month after checking in.