Distance: What Does It Mean In Your Life?

To have an adequate management of the distance in our life supposes to implement the necessary actions to get closer to those that we want to keep nearby and to put the barriers in the event that what we are looking for is to move away or move away.

Distance is a physical concept which, in the case of humans, has psychological implications. These expressions that are used daily such as “keep your distance”, “be near” or “approach” someone act as proof. We also speak of “distancing oneself” from situations, or “distancing oneself” from what affects us.

In physical terms, this question is also very relevant to human beings. Each has its own spaces and approaches them in a specific way. We need different degrees of physical distance in our social relationships.   It is also an individual living space, because all of this has implications in our lives.

Distance is a concept that also applies to objects and their effect on the human psyche. The sensation generated by one room full of objects is different from that produced by another, where there are few things, far from each other. Let’s take a closer look.

Physical distance and its effects

It finds its most obvious form of expression in the physical plane. Moving away or approaching physically is a manifestation of distance or emotional approach. This manifests itself not only in the distance or closeness between one person’s body and that of another, but also in gestures, voice sounds and postures.

Researchers Lawrence E. Williams and John A. Bargh, the first from the University of Colorado and the second from Yale University, conducted an intensive study on the subject. They concluded that “ perceptual and motor representations of physical distance influence people’s thoughts and feelings”.

This means that physical distance influences people’s judgments and emotional states. In their research, Williams and Bargh encouraged some people to take a physical distance from people who were previously very close to them. Over time, they showed that this distance affected their attachment to them.

Distance and conflict

The findings of researchers Lawrence E. Williams and John A. Bargh have repercussions on various aspects, including that of conflict. One of the results of their experiments points out that “ feelings of distance can moderate the emotional intensity of stimuli”. In other words, what is far affects us less.

This proves that this measure of physical distancing from what negatively affects us is effective. Withdrawal leads to a moderation of the influence of the person or situation in question. Therefore, it contributes to a decrease in the intensity of feelings and, instead, to a more serene outlook. Physically moving away from people or conflicting spaces helps to qualify these conflicts.

However, in humans, and even in animals, proximity and distance are also an emotional and mental issue. You can be physically far from something or someone, and yet the connection can be even closer and more intense than if you had it an inch away. And the reverse is also true: we are physically close to something or someone, but, at the same time, light years away from it.

Distance in the subjective world

If we want to cut ties with something or someone, physical distance is only the first step. In reality it will significantly change the connection we have with this reality.

If we want to be emotionally close to someone, we also need to be physically close. It means being physically present in your life. With the presence itself, but also with the physical proximity, that is to say with the hugs, the words, the caresses, etc. Emotional closeness, on the other hand, involves having that person in mind and bringing us closer to their inner world through conversation.

At the same time, if the goal is to get away from someone, we have to do the right thing. That is to say, first of all, physically distance yourself. Not to be present in a physical way, therefore, but not in a surreptitious way either, that is to say, in a way that prompts us to spy on this person or to keep us informed of his life, to constantly think of him . As a result, it will help to establish emotional distance, that is, a break with its influence on our life.

Our thoughts