You know that feeling when your mind becomes quiet, the world become still and life feels in a flow? Some of us feel it more than others, and in different situations. I feel that flow most when I am engaged with a group of people, in Community.

Here’s the funny thing: I am scared to death of Community. Yep. People behave in unexpected ways. They can need things from me I cannot provide. I can want things from them that they don’t want to give. Relationships can be tricky and so easily these days we can hide in the virtual world of Facebook and Internet surfing, which is so much easier to control.

Our Connection without Connection

There is not much in our daily lives that pushes us to step into the unknown, so we stay complacent and protected from the very thing we need most – each other.

Gratefully, equal to fear is my complete fascination with people, groups, connections. People inspire, delight and cajole me out of that complacent and distracted place right into the present moment.

Many of us feel most alive when we are together. Being in relationships makes us feel alive in ways we can never achieve alone. When we join together our impact is exponential.

My Journey to Realizing Connection

So, even knowing my fears, and maybe because I know if I have them, at least some of you do too, I’m reaching out to you.

I’ve been studying the ways in which we isolate ourselves and the mechanisms we can use to reconnect to each other and beyond. I’ve studied the holistic and relational healing traditions of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. These ancient ways of understanding the body, mind, spirit are based on the appreciation of connection.

I’ve experienced, witnessed and studied the use of technology as an “auto regulating” disconnect in current society. I’ve seen miraculous healing and understanding created through use of the same technology, think Mindfulness meditation apps, Humans of New York (HONY) to name only two.

There were the three years on sabbatical when I removed myself from community. The inner wisdom, hardships and lessons learned are worth the time spent in solitude.

I’ve really lived both sides of this one! I’ve read books by system’s thinkers, taught and practiced yoga, taken and am leading spiritual pilgrimages, practiced and studied permaculture, which is, at it’s core, a system for utilizing the two way connection between man and our planet. I’m even more excited about this subject than I was before I started to study!

What I know now, is that deep happiness and healing comes from realizing these connections that have been studied for millennia in varying traditions.

Taking cues from the old and the new, I have discovered that there are some surprising ways we can continue to use our amazing digital and technological tools to make real-time connection happen.

How?

Let’s experiment together!

At Realizing Connection, we’re developing new and fun ways to experience connection with ourselves, our neighbors, and the natural world. These experiments might include starting a conversation with a person you don’t know each day for a week, taking a photo or video of that interaction and sharing it on social media.

Through these experiments, we will learn more about ourselves and each other as we deepen our relationships and maybe develop new and meaningful friendships along the way. We’ll test out the effects of these experiments and how they help us realize connection in novel ways for the early-21st century.

At the same time, our sharing stories and images will create a built-in support network. We’ll meet exponentially more people and create a tidal wave of realizing connection together. Wouldn’t it be awesome? A tidal wave of connectedness and belonging!

Some of these experiments will be done on your own, and we have some super-fun ideas for group experiments too!

Because I know we are better together, and I think you do, too, let’s see what happens when we stop wishing for more from our world and start making it happen!