HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

Attunement and Attachment. 

“And so, what that means is that we might actually say that needfulness — because it is temporal and changing and over the lifespan — is a feature actually of human life, and maybe even constitutive of the good life, I’ve come to think.”- Krista Tippet.

Our first experiences of developing relationships begin in infancy through the initial bonds that are developed with caregivers, where safety and reciprocity are paramount to meeting the needs of a developing body and mind. The theory of attachment, as coined by the psychiatrist John Bowlby describes the emotional ties that people form with one another, and how our first experiences with caregivers can have significance, but will change throughout life as we grow and form new relationships and mould existing ones. Relationships that nurture are founded in physical and emotional attunement, a feeling of non verbal synchrony between one another. Like infants, reliant on caring attuned adults to thrive in their development, our own needs for attunement and social relationships never cease to exist and are important determinants for our wellbeing. Inevitably forming relationships, the ones that sustain, will expose our deepest insecurties, longings and fragilites, because in our depths we are tender. Yet caring relationships can be like music in our lives offering rhythm, joy. A source of beauty, and that is the dance of attachment, our fear and our fragilities, can unite to bring fulfillment.

31. Oct. 2024.

Further Reading.

Saul McLeod, Saul, Attachment Theory In Psychology, Simply Psychology, updated January 17, Accessible 2024https://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html, Accessed 28 Oct 2024.

Mate Gabor,Nuefeld Gordon,2006, Hold Onto your Kids, Random House Publishing Group; London.