16d • Joyful News
A New Discovery That Changed How I Think About Group Wellness
This week, I had one of those moments where you realise you’ve somehow missed something that everyone else seems to already know.
You know the feeling, people are nodding along, using the language with ease, and you’re quietly thinking, How have I not come across this before?
That was me this week when I properly encountered Yalom’s group factors.
It felt surprisingly new to me, not because the ideas were unfamiliar, but because I’d never seen them named, structured, and explained in this way.
Once I started paying attention, I couldn’t unsee them. They suddenly showed up everywhere: in learning spaces, support groups, friendships, and communities like ours.
And the more I reflected on them, the more I realised how powerful they are, especially when it comes to emotional wellness and group wellbeing.
💛 Why This Matters for Emotional Wellness
One of the most important ideas in Yalom’s work is Universality, the realisation that we are not alone in our struggles, our quirks, or even our insecurities.
So often, emotional distress grows in silence. We assume our feelings are unique, excessive, or somehow “too much.” When we discover that others feel the same way, whether it’s anxiety, self-doubt, overwhelm, or even feeling too loud or too quiet, something softens inside us.
That softening is emotional wellness in action.
Shame reduces. Anxiety eases. Self-judgement loosens its grip.We move from “What’s wrong with me?” to “Oh… this is human.”
And that shift alone can be deeply healing.
From Individual Wellness to Collective Wellness
What really struck me, though, is how these ideas extend beyond the individual.
We talk a lot about personal wellbeing, and rightly so, but group wellness is something different. It’s about how safe, supported, and regulated a group feels as a whole. It’s about how people show up together.
Yalom’s factors give us a beautiful framework for this.
- Altruism reminds us that helping and being helped both matter
- Group cohesiveness creates emotional safety and belonging
- Instillation of hope shows us that growth is possible, even when things feel messy
- Interpersonal learning helps us understand how we affect others, and how they affect us
When these are present, groups become spaces of healing rather than pressure. They become places where people don’t have to perform, compete, or shrink themselves to belong.
And honestly… isn’t that what we’re all craving?
Why This Feels So Relevant to the Joyful Mind Community
As I sat with all of this, I realised why it resonated so deeply.
This is exactly why we’re here.
Joyful Mind isn’t just about individual growth, it’s about creating a collective space where emotional wellness is shared, supported, and nurtured. A space where people feel seen, heard, and valued, not for being perfect, but for being real. Like we were yesterday morning at out Monthly power of 8 gathering.
If we apply these ideas consciously within our community, group wellness becomes something we actively cultivate, not something we hope will just happen.
Sooooo How We Can Apply This Together?
Here are a few simple, powerful ways we can support group wellness in Joyful Mind:
- Normalise honesty When we share openly (without over-explaining or apologising), we invite universality. Someone else always needs to hear what you’re brave enough to say.
- Make space, not noise Whether you tend to be quiet or outspoken, group wellness comes from balance. Pausing, listening, and allowing silence creates space for everyone.
- Let support flow both ways Altruism isn’t about fixing it’s about connection. Sometimes the most healing thing is simply being present.
- Respect different rhythms Not everyone processes, speaks, or shares in the same way. Group wellness thrives when we allow difference without judgement.
- Stay curious about our impact Emotional wellness grows when we gently reflect on how we show up not to criticise ourselves, but to grow with awareness.
A Final Thought
What I love most about this discovery is that it reminds us that wellness doesn’t happen in isolation.
We heal in relationship. We grow in connection. And we feel safest when we realise we don’t have to do this alone.
This model may have been new to me this week, but it already feels like something I’ll carry forward, both personally and within Joyful Mind. My hope is that it gives us a shared language for something we already intuitively value: a community where emotional wellness belongs to all of us, together.
💛
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A New Discovery That Changed How I Think About Group Wellness
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