Quotes About Support

When she says "life or death," she's not kidding. It turns out that everything she's learned complements what we read about loneliness: Social interaction makes us live longer, healthier lives. By a lot. Pinker writes, "In fact, neglecting to keep in close contact with people who are important to you is at least as dangerous to your health as a pack-a-day cigarette habit, hypertension, or obesity." The good news is that this contact

In my story, Ashley was willing to be in my darkness with me. She wasn't there as my helper or to fix me; she was just with me—as an equal—holding my hand as I waded through my feelings.

It's so much easier to say, "I'll be whoever or whatever you need me to be, as long as I feel like I'm part of this.

Leaders must care for and be connected to the people they lead.

Google's five-year study on highly productive teams, Project Aristotle, found that psychological safety—team members feeling safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other—was "far and away the most important of the five dynamics that set successful teams apart.

Sometimes our first and greatest dare is asking for support.

What does support from me look like?" Not only does it offer the opportunity for clarity and set up the team for success, asking people for specific examples of what supportive behaviors look like—and what they do not look like—it also holds them accountable for asking for what they need.

Who has earned the right to hear my story?" If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky. If we have a friend, or a small group of friends, or family who embraces our imperfections, vulnerabilities, and power, and fills us with a sense of belonging, we are incredible lucky.

Because we don't talk about the things that get in the way of doing what we know is best for us, our children, our families, our organizations, and our communities.

As someone who struggles watching my kids struggle, I can tell you—this is hard. I remind myself of the saying "Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.

When we are looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles. We need to honor our struggle by sharing it with someone who has earned the right to hear it. When we're looking for compassion, it's about connecting with the right person at the right time about the right issue.

We asked a thousand leaders to list marble-earning behaviors—what do your team members do that earns your trust? The most common answer: asking for help. When it comes to people who do not habitually ask for help, the leaders we polled explained that they would not delegate important work to them because the leaders did not trust that they would raise their hands and ask for help.

others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize

Unchecked loneliness fuels continued loneliness by keeping us afraid to reach out.

Ashley wasn't uprooted and thrown into the storm created by my experience. She also wasn't so rigid that she snapped with judgment and blame. She didn't try to fix me or make me feel better; she just listened and had the courage to share some of her own vulnerabilities with me.

Love and belonging are irreducible needs of men, women, and children. In the absence of love and belonging, there is always suffering.

We're all just walking each other home." For

Vulnerability begets vulnerability; courage is contagious.

We must be guardians of a space that allows students to breathe and be curious and explore the world and be who they are without suffocation. They deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can exhale.

Empathy is feeling with people. Sympathy is feeling for them. Empathy fuels connection. Sympathy drives disconnection. I always think of empathy as this sacred space where someone's in a deep well, and they shout out from the bottom, "It's dark and scary down here. I'm overwhelmed.

The greatest need that any child has is the need for unconditional love.' (Boyd 2003)

It is she who is offering compassion to Janet. Compassion and gratitude in equal parts.

Which one of the BFF'S can you relate to the most and why?

This is the kind of person you marry—someone who loves the worst parts of you, someone who knows how to make you laugh even when you're mad as hell.