As a Well-being Strategist, my mission is to help people take charge of their well-being and develop strategies and practices to live well on their terms. Each issue of my newsletter focuses on one pillar, this month is Community Well-being: You feel a sense of belonging where you live and work.
Capturing the true essence of community in words is daunting because a community is multifaceted, mysterious and miraculous. I am also at odds with how the term community is thrown around carelessly, to describe a random group of people for example, when we owe it to ourselves to honor that community is more than the sum of its parts.
Quoting M. Scott Peck, author of The Different Drum:
If we are going to use the word [community] meaningfully we must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to “rejoice together, mourn together,” and to “delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own.”
Humans are social creatures who desperately need each other for meaning to our lives, but we also are pulled towards individualism to discover our unique potential and power. The experience, and sometimes pressure, to develop as unique individuals can make us feel separate from other people.
Combine individualism with social, cultural, economic, and political dynamics and we have a conundrum: a desperate human need for genuine community with scarce examples of what it is and how to achieve it.
The rise of digital communication – messaging apps, video calls, social media – mean we can be more connected than ever, but then why do loneliness and isolation persist? It could be because modern communications and the seemingly positive effect (hits of dopamine) have conditioned us to be overly reliant on some communities while avoiding others. Consider these three rings of community:
- Inner Ring: friends and family
- Middle Ring: neighborhood and workplace
- Outer Ring: hobbies and interests
Do you cultivate community evenly between these circles? Can you easily identify a sense of belonging within each circle? Is there one circle you shy away from?
A theory for why we are struggling with being in genuine community is the ability and desire to build relationships that go deeper than our masks of composure and to be in real-time unfiltered conversations with people we deem less important than our loved ones and people we share affinities with. This can cause a weakening of the Middle Ring of community which traditionally has taught us tolerance, and true to our nature we seek out paths of least resistance.
The three rings of community expanded to show the opportunity for growth:
- STRONG - Inner Ring: friends and family = love
- WEAK - Middle Ring: neighborhood and workplace = tolerance
- STRONG - Outer Ring: hobbies and interests = loyalty
Community well-being is a feeling of belonging where you spend most of your time, such as at work and in your neighborhood. You may be feeling a lack of community because of the weakening of the Middle Ring, which is where you spend much of your time. You can begin to strengthen the Middle Ring of community with these suggestions:
- Greet the people you interact with on a regular basis by name – grocery clerk, pharmacist, neighbor, receptionist, barista, and other people in your community.
- Subscribe to your city’s newsletter (social media feed, or other news source) to be informed about what’s happening near you.
- Volunteer at an animal shelter, food bank, parks department or a cause that interests you in your neighborhood.
- Have lunch at least once a week with a co-worker or mentor at work.
- Join an Employee Resource Group (ERG) at work, and if your workplace does not have ERGs ask if you can help get one started.
Community, like the other well-being pillars of Mind & Body, Relationships, Career, and Finances, takes time and intention to cultivate.
It is foundational to be part of something bigger than ourselves and each of us contributes to the multifaceted and miraculous experience of creating a genuine community.
Wishing you peace, health, and happiness!
-Sharman
FOR HIRE: I have space in my Marketing & Communications consultancy to take on one part-time client from April to June and a full-time client beginning in July. Contact me to discuss projects or referrals.
I specialize in marketing, communications, and well-being strategy for small to medium sized business where I have 15+ years' leadership experience driving growth, engagement, culture, and brand affinity. Learn more on LinkedIn.
Read previous newsletters:
The spark that leads to Career Well-being, February 2025
One change to significantly improve your well-being, January 2025
