Why Connection Matters

I believe this topic of conversation deserves a dedicated blog post, because something I am continuously saying in my writing is: We are not meant to be alone. This is innately true. Human beings are meant to connect with others and to build communities. It's quite literally what we do - I mean look at the cities around you. One person does not wake up one day and think, "I'm just gonna build this shit for myself. For aesthetics." No, cities were built because our species is just simply better - together.

There is something interesting about the pandemic that I do not feel like we talk about often enough, and that topic is grief. I actually grieve the world and society that we used to know before 2020, similar to grieving the loss of a loved one. There's denial, shock, bargaining, depression, and now acceptance. It affected every individual life on this planet in some way, and no one talks about how incredible that really is.

It personally flipped my own life upside down.

When I transitioned to a new company and started working from home in 2020 there were two things that happened. First I thought it was incredible. I experienced much more work-life balance. I was able to complete my day job work AND housework, simultaneously. I had dinner prepped and ready by 6pm every night. That went on for quite some time. Then it transitioned to, "When was the last time I talked face to face with someone outside my household?" And the next thing I knew, I found myself in this really weird mental state of viewing my home as a place of all work and no rest. Home is supposed to be our place of comfort and I wanted nothing more than to leave my home at all times... yet, leaving my home was not the same. The world outside was not the same. People themselves were not the same.

I became riddled with depression over a period of time from the isolation - it did not feel so cyclical as it once was, it felt constant. Granted, there was so much happening inside our home during this time period that heavily contributed, but something that really would have helped manage that depression would have been family and close friends. Having them near. When they are far away they do not see what you are experiencing. Everything they know comes from what you share over the phone, and if you knew me prior to 2023, you know that sharing my life and my emotions was not something I excelled at.

However, something that always seemed to help me manage my anxiety and depression when living far away was work - my coworkers, very specifically. Socializing. So as a remote worker, not having that daily interaction with coworkers really hurt me. Not having an escape from our home to a friend or family member's home really hurt me. I was completely alone. For such a long, long time. And that never really changed until last year - three whole years later.

There are so many takeaways that I have from 2023. My first takeaway, during this painful year of personal growth, is that exercise does not have to be hard or painful. It can just... be. Physical activity and joy are [subjectively] so much better for my health.

My second biggest takeaway is this: we were not meant to be isolated.

Shocker, I know.

We were never meant to go it alone, to not be surrounded by friends, family, our community. We cannot do it. We were meant to foster connections - true connections, ones that require vulnerability - with others. This is how we survive.

And this is exactly what my business platform allows me to do.

Bring people together. Connect with those who are searching for support as they pursue change. Foster community connections as we come together and release the stress of our day, create something joyful. Get inspired. Make new friends.

James and I really do not have a big community here, just a couple close friends (who I am so grateful for because it is not easy to make friends as an adult outside of your workplace, am I right?). We do not have family here. This is hard. Even if your spouse is your best friend this is so hard. This is why using my business to bring people together will always be my first priority. To foster community and connections. These are things that I value, these are things I genuinely enjoy doing.

We have all been so separated the last several years. Physically.

We have all been so divided the last several years. Mentally.

We have all forgotten what it feels like to be connected with others - to live and to belong in a community. Emotionally.

I believe we are all beginning to crave these things once again. As we should.

My goal as a business is to create workshops that are not only productive to our holistic health in some way, shape or form, but also creative, lax and conversational. My goal is to create an environment where people, who take the intimidating plunge of signing up for something alone, emerge with a newfound inspiration or even possibly a new friend. I aspire to use my business platform to host workshops in my own home at times, because I genuinely like hosting people and it was what our home was intended to do. I am a Certified Wellness Coach because I want to be that "connection" I speak of for someone to lean into for support while they work towards a personal goal of their own.

In a lot of ways, it feels like years of my life have been building to this. In my previous workplaces it was always imperative to me to connect with my vendors, customers, and coworkers. You can read in my LinkedIn bio from 2016 that I have always prided myself on building honest, down-to-earth relationships in the workplace. I was always the organizer for happy hour events, and participating in office celebrations. I liked to bring treats in for my coworkers at Christmas, or sit out big bowls of Halloween candy in the shops for the welders. I used to call coworkers to simply check on them, or call a vendor because I remembered their daughter had a volleyball game and I wanted to know how it went.

My entire career.

When I daydreamed of becoming a business owner I envisioned a place for community. I saw a brewery, because that is where people gather and play games. I saw an office space of my own that doubled as an open creative space for people to come in and... play - a space where I would hold workshops like what I am pursuing more of this year. With James' business I thought in terms of "How can we give back? Can we approve this as a trade school program for kids to learn here?"

Community engagement is quite literally why my business exists. More than my coaching programs, more than my blog.

It is so glaringly obvious to me now when I look back on the last decade of my life, and look back on what I have learned about myself over the last year and half through isolation and grief, that what I am doing now is so very important to who I am as a person. I am wholeheartedly invested in my business's mission of connecting with others and bringing local community together because these are things that are imperative to my own health. These are things that are imperative to the health of each of us.

It is time to grieve the world as we knew it and to accept what we know is innately true to us all.

We are simply not meant to be alone.