Longing for emotional closeness is an innate human desire and can be found across all cultures, genders, ages, religions, and economic classes. It is something that everyone wants but can also be difficult to achieve due to various factors like lack of time, communication skills, and trust issues. For soldiers, this desire becomes even more complicated when they are serving their country and have to leave behind loved ones for extended periods of time. This article explores how soldiers can reconcile longing for emotional closeness while fearing it may become fragile under the strain of service.
The Importance of Emotional Closeness
Emotional closeness between partners is essential for maintaining healthy and happy relationships. It involves building strong bonds based on mutual respect, understanding, support, and affection. When people feel emotionally close to each other, they experience greater satisfaction in life and are less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.
Achieving such intimacy requires effort and investment. Soldiers who go away for months or years without seeing their families face challenges that test their ability to stay connected emotionally.
Challenges Faced by Soldiers
Soldiers must deal with several unique challenges that make maintaining emotional closeness difficult. Firstly, they often have limited access to technology that allows them to communicate regularly with family members back home. Secondly, they may find themselves living in unfamiliar environments where social norms differ from those they grew up with. Thirdly, their work environment can be stressful, making it hard to focus on personal relationships.
They may experience trauma during deployment which impacts their mental health, making them reluctant to open up emotionally.
Strategies for Reconciling Longing and Fear
To address these challenges, soldiers must develop strategies for reconciling longing for emotional closeness and fear that it might become fragile under the strain of service. One strategy is prioritizing communication with loved ones even when separated. This includes regular phone calls, emails, video chats, and letters so that both parties feel heard and understood despite the distance between them. Another strategy is finding ways to connect with others who understand military life - whether through online communities, local chapters of veterans organizations, or counselors specializing in PTSD treatment.
Soldiers should try to create new routines around communication practices like sending weekly updates about daily activities or setting aside time each night to talk before bedtime.
Achieving emotional closeness as a soldier requires effort and resilience but is essential for overall well-being. By utilizing various strategies such as prioritizing communication, connecting with others who understand military life, and creating new routines around communication practices, soldiers can bridge the gap created by separation while staying true to their values regarding intimacy and trustworthiness.
How do soldiers reconcile longing for emotional closeness with the fear that such closeness may become fragile under the strain of service?
Soldiers are constantly surrounded by violence and conflict while serving their country. This creates an atmosphere where one's mental health can be compromised if not properly addressed. The desire for intimacy is natural, but the fear of losing it due to stress from war is real. To cope with this tension, they often turn to family members, friends, colleagues, and sometimes even strangers who have experienced similar situations as them.