What's it made of?

What makes for a strong connection? 

Even while opportunities to socialize or return to physical work spaces increase, prolonged loneliness, isolation, and disconnection pervade our internal spaces. 

In the past month, I've traveled twice, which was quite a change after a two year gap in travel. 

I'll be honest, travel is one of my favorite things - and has been since high school, so it's no surprise I enjoyed these trips more than a puppy enjoys a new squeaker toy!  

While these trips were both professional events, they also brought me into the same room with friends that I hadn't seen in 15 years, or hadn't ever seen outside of a computer screen!  Seeing people connected to their whole bodies both affirmed what I'd already experienced of them and enhanced it.  

Facilitating conversations, empowering people to clarify and use their voice, and speaking about how changing your relationship to your emotions is integral to changing the world were all meaningful - and yet it was the connections that made each part transform from an exercise or activity into a lasting impact and craving for more.

Have there been moments you enjoyed so much that the very thought of it causes your whole face to light up like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland?  

How do you nurture the types of connection that fill you from top to bottom?  

Connection and belonging are core needs - innate, biological drives like hunger and thirst.  They are so important, so truly essential, that babies' health falters and ultimately fails from an absence of affection.

As you age, it may become easy to dismiss, ignore, or minimize the validity of these needs, and yet you never outgrow them.

Whether you are someone who finds yourself being a source of connection for others, someone who never quite feels like you fit in, or someone who is constantly straddling and code-switching between different environments to maintain safety, you are impacted by the deficit of truly connected and safe communities.     

Connection is so important - yet it is also so hard to define, measure, or deconstruct.  What is authentic connection made of?  How do you find, build, and create it - again and again?

Please reply and share - What do you look for in a psychologically safe community?

Whether you already have spaces that meet all your needs for connection, or whether you are looking for something different, please remember that your need for connection and belonging is innate and irreplaceable.

You matter.  You can make a difference.  I'm so thankful you're here.