These three podcasts aim to help you find friends and build relationships, overcome worries about networking, reflect on loneliness and how to address it, and ponder some of the benefits of contemplative solitude.
This podcast series is for anyone who has worries about friendships while studying at the University of Oxford, whether as a newly arrived undergraduate or post-graduate, or as a more established student who has been studying here for some time.
Common worries about friendships might include how to make friends and whether we have enough of them, why we might at times feel lonely, even when we’re with people, and what to do about this if we do, how to deepen our existing friendships, and why, even though we usually get on with our friendship group, we might occasionally find ourselves falling out with them.
Sometimes, it can also just be really hard to know if someone is a friend, more of an acquaintance, or someone with whom we just want to network. Or indeed, we might be curious as to whether someone might be more than a friend – and perhaps a potential romantic or sexual partner.
Overall, then, it’s more than likely that, like most people, you will have different kinds of worries about your friendships and social life at different times in your university career.
Importantly, these podcasts are not intended to be used as a replacement for counselling, therapy, or medical intervention for those who might need it. Rather, the series aims to provide a stimulus to reflection and source of potential support, and the hope is that it will give you some ideas which might be part of a process of understanding more about yourself and, ultimately, feeling better.
