Create a Healthy Community

Saying that nothing exists in a vacuum couldn’t be more true for humans.  We need community to thrive, to enjoy love, to develop friendships and family relationships.  Loneliness literally shortens our life.  Here’s how to approach creating a healthy community.

Choose Your Friends Wisely

If you’re friends are positive, outgoing, and upbeat, you’ll develop or enhance those same characteristics in yourself.  Think more like Tigger and Piglet and less like Eeyore.  A positive outlook on life is correlated to a slimmer waistline and increased longevity.

Follow Your Passion

By choosing activities you love you’ll find like-minded individuals who share your passion.  It’s a great way to make friends and to stimulate your brain.  It could be a bitch-and-stitch knitting club or a comic convention.  Whatever floats your boat will help you gather with people who can become part of your community.

Digital Community

Facebook has more than 500 million members, and all of them are looking for connection online.  How amazing is that? We can sort by family member, high school friends, co-workers, people with similar interests, and much, much more. You can literally stitch together your community one avatar at a time.  Any vague interest or lifetime phase can be collected, sorted, and interacted with.

Reach Beyond Digital

Of course the next logical step is to transfer these connections into the real world.  If you talk to a comic book aficionado regularly online maybe you can meet at the next local convention.  If you travel for vacation and you have a digital buddy who lives at your destination, try to meet for coffee.  Creating face-to-face interactions has been so enriching for my life.  I’ve created very real friendships, strengthened other friendships, and even found a business partner all stemming from my digital interactions.

The Family Meal

Don’t forget to think within your four walls.  I am a huge fan of the family meal.  My husband and son and whomever else is around all sit down for dinner every night with only rare exceptions.  It’s how we connect as a family.  We catch up on the day and have an easy, open relationship where almost anything can be said.  I really hope we maintain that when my son hits the teenage years.

Use Sports as Community

The obvious team sports such as soccer and basketball automatically engender community.  A dogged practice or a tough loss will foster camaraderie and team spirit.  That beer afterward at the local pub will go a long way too.  Are there any sports from your youth that you’d like to try again?  Research what the options are in your community and see what appeals to you.  Maybe you’ll even find a brand new sport to love.  You’ll be healthier and have lots of friends.

What do you do to create a healthy community?  Please share here.

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This is part of a series for Challenge Week:  A weeklong plan to live a better life.  You can read them all there.

• The plan:  From Beginner to Advanced
• Prep Day:  Getting Ready
• How to Eat Well
• Cardio Basics:  Develop Your Best Plan
• Weight Training Basics:  Incorporating Everything from Yoga to Free Weights
• DeStress:  Six Ways to Chill Out

If you like this series, please share it with a friend or on your twitter feed or Digg, etc.  I’m passionate about helping people get to the next level!  :-)

Lisa