Connection. Community. Communication. Conversation. These are all part of the human condition and experience. While some of us are more content just hanging out on our own, the reality is whether you identify with the introvert, extrovert or ambivert club, we all need some human connection. We are designed with a right brain that needs to connect with other right brains.
What do you notice about how you feel, your mood and energy when you have spent time with people you like and /or love? What do you notice you feel much of the time when you are alone? There is no right or wrong here, no judgment either. This is simply about noticing and paying attention to diving deeper into who you are and what you need.
Many of us are at our happiest when we are engaging, connecting and conversing with others. Some of us are most content when curled up with the cat and a good book, and some of us need and enjoy both.
What about you? Has the pandemic forced more alone time than you need or would like?
Has going out and having to mask up and social distance taken the fun out of meeting with a friend and hanging out?
If you are struggling, you are not alone. If you have been feeling more tense, worried, anxious or depressed, you are not alone. If you have suffered loss, you are not alone.
We have collectively as a community felt the distress of having life so abruptly turned upside down over the course of more than a year.
And yet, there are some great takeaways and opportunities as we look at the past, present and future.
One takeaway may be that many of us were living our lives too alone, too much in the silo of our everyday tasks and responsibilities and not carving out enough white space in our agendas for connecting with others.
If we are going to live this sometimes painfully difficult life well, if we are going to be resilient and rise above our current circumstances living fully in the moment, we must do it together.
It may be “easier” to struggle alone. It may be the story you tell yourself that you just need to buck up and move on… many of us have told ourselves that same story. And yet that story leads to a place that is lonely, distressing, and painfully barren.
Our hope is that you realize you both need and have a Community. We need others. We need stable and safe relationships. We need people who we feel energized by that can help us thrive and not merely survive the tough times.
The pandemic is not the beginning and end of tough times.
There will be more. That is the nature of life on this side of heaven.
Today, may the Live Well Kitsap Team challenge you to care enough about yourself to reach out and connect with someone. They might need your encouraging words today or you might need theirs.
Reach out to an entity; a church, temple or mosque, to an agency or place you can connect, volunteer at or get involved with. Reach out to an old or new friend. Say hello to a stranger.
Hold a door open. Check in on an elderly neighbor or stay at home mom.
We thrive when we are intentionally moving, growing, connecting and transforming together.
As we round out the last week of the Live Well Kitsap Community Challenge, our hope is that you have cultivated a few new daily activities that are slowly one day at a time becoming new habits replacing old ones that did not serve you well.
Connect with us. Meet us in the Live Well Kitsap Forum today. Tell us your story and how the Challenge has been for you on our Live Well Kitsap FB page or in our new Live Well Kitsap Facebook Community Group! www.facebook.com/groups/livewellkitsap
We can’t wait to be on this journey with you.