Tag Archive for: belonging

Neighbour Connectedness is fundamental to happiness. So says hundreds of research projects. Finally, some of our leaders are starting to say the same thing.

King Charles II mentioned its importance and Pime Minister Carney talked about looking out for each other in their holiday messages.

To be human is to belong and take responsibility for your neighbours wellbeing. It has been that way since we lived in caves and only in the last 40 years have we fooled ourselves into thinking otherwise.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, we can enhance our humanity by simply connecting with our neighbours. I use the word simply with caution, as for many of us, this is no longer simple.

That is why we have created the Good Neighbour Method, a proven process for recreating our culture of connectedness and mutual support. We know how to do this, and we can make it normal for neighbours to know and support each … Read the rest

There is a crisis of loneliness going on in the developed world. For example, in Canada and the USA, reports show that as many of 50% of the population experiences loneliness. Loneliness leads to all kinds of other problems including mental, physical and social problems.

The opposite of loneliness is belonging. But what is belonging?

Research over several decades (e.g. MacMillan & Chavis, 1986 and see an updated version at https://www.drdavidmcmillan.com/sense-of-community/sense-of-community) has concluded there are elements needed to build a “sense of community”: Membership, Influence, Satisfaction of needs, and emotional connection.

But we are not academics in a theoretical world. We are real people living amongst other people. So we asked people, what does it mean to belong.

The answers we got were Trust, Friendly, Caring and Mutual Support.

In our everyday world, we have to feel safe (Trust and Friendly), we have to feel connected (Mutual Caring) and we have to get something out of the relationship ( Mutual … Read the rest

Read the rest