A Conversation At A Time: Friendship Breakups
A Conversation At A Time is an idea that I initially came up with for my podcast. The concept involves bringing people together and giving them prompt cards to guide their conversation on a particular topic. I believe in creating safe spaces where people can freely share their mental health experiences and feel welcomed, embraced, accommodated, and understood. Since I started my blog and podcast, I have always tried to create these spaces for everyone who shares their story with me. This is something that I also incorporate into my daily life, and I have seen firsthand how impactful these conversations and safe spaces can be.
As I continued to collect stories for my blog and podcast, I realized that a lot of people go through different things that affect their mental health. Many of these people feel alone in their experiences and tend to carry a lot of shame. This shame causes them to isolate themselves and never share their stories. Unfortunately, this isolation and shame only makes their experiences heavier and more impactful on their mental well-being. The fear of being judged and not being understood also contributes to the silence.
To address this issue, I came up with the A Conversation At A Time Live Experience where people can come together in a safe space and share their experiences with others who have gone through similar situations. The concept is similar to that of the podcast, where we give participants prompt cards to guide their conversation. The goal is to make people realize that they are not alone and that others have gone through similar experiences.
We held the first A Conversation At A Time Live Experience of 2024 on February 24th, and the topic of discussion was friendship breakups. We had ten participants who gathered in smaller groups and used their prompt cards to share their experiences.
Some of my takeaways from the session were:
- Friendships, like romantic relationships, require compatibility. Sometimes, you and your friend are just not compatible, and things don’t work out.
- Unlike romantic relationships, friendships do not always have a distinct ending, which can be confusing and difficult to navigate.
- Friendship breakups are common and need to be discussed more openly.
- It’s okay to take time to heal and feel whatever emotions come up after a friendship breakup.
I’m grateful to everyone who participated in the session and those who helped organize it.
I hope that these sessions will continue to be healing spaces and encourage more conversations about mental health experiences in various communities.
Paulyne