You Need Community Care To Thrive - Here’s Why

Unlike self-care, which focuses on your individual needs, community care is a system designed to inspire a wider group of people.

The coronavirus pandemic has made us realise that relationships and the sense of belonging to a community are necessary for our mental wellness. Growing awareness of the importance of helping others is a much needed and a great pathway to happiness.

Prioritising sharing, caring for others or taking time to gift someone your attention - these are some of the most special things you can do.

The Future of Community Based Wellness

Feeling more connected.

We’re talking more to each other. The covid-19 pandemic has brought many feelings to the surface and, as we cannot busy ourselves with a 100 things to do at the moment, we now have this opportunity to reconnect with ourselves and others around us.

By sharing our thoughts and feelings we can help each other enormously. Not only do we feel better about opening up to one another, but this act allows us to feel even more connected to whom we are sharing.

We are listening more too as we have fewer distractions. How beautiful it is to truly hear what someone is saying rather than listening to respond? Listening says: I care about you.

Mindful and intuitive eating.

People don’t want demoralising restrictions nor the “you can eat these snacks as they are all under 100 calories” mindset.

People will embrace food that is natural, healthy and grown organically. Communities will look at more sustainable and more conscious ways to eat, produce food and reduce waste and carbon dioxide emissions.

We want to protect our future and joining forces together through community care is a great way to go about it.

Living offline.

We will be more mindful towards our devices. Moving away from phones, laptops and TV to find more time to be with ourselves, walk-in nature, read or work on a creative endeavour.

Have you thought about using an allotment to grow your own food? What about taking up gardening to create a landscape of an oasis of calm in your backyard?

Simplified lifestyle.

Staying at home has shifted our budget and mind away from spa services, new clothes and makeup. We can see that less is more.

We pared back our skincare routines, stopped overuse skin treatments, fillers and botox. They may not be redundant but we are definitely more aware of the damaging effect overdoing them has our skin. Not to mention a much less strain on our wallets.

Setting goals.

It’s important to stay present but also realistic about what we can achieve. The practice of setting goals helps us change our mindset and wellbeing for the better. We’re becoming more pragmatic and looking at maintaining our health. We’re improving it by introducing a system of better habits rather than changing everything at once overnight.

Small goals are more accessible. They don’t dent our confidence and help us feel more satisfied. They also give us the much-needed consistency as we are less inclined to give up when we have a smaller frame to work with.

It’s much better for our mind too. A large goal is like chasing a rainbow 🌈 - we can see it but it’s still too far away from what our life actually is right now.

This situation is far from ideal but we are finding out what we really love now. Long lost pursuits are coming back into our lives. We are paying more attention to ourselves and others, gaining insight into what we really need as individuals rather than following the crowd and fashion trends.

We’re buying less and appreciating what we already have. We’re sleeping more. Eating home-cooked meals with our family. Spending time on pleasure rather than acquiring things. Card games, learning an instrument, reading or journaling.

We are destined to become more content with what we already have - we are not lacking. The way in which this pandemic is shaping our lives in 2021 is really a cycle of new growth.

We are learning what being FORTUNATE really means and how to be GRATEFUL for the things we may have taken for granted. I hope that we all choose to stay with those feelings even once the pandemic has subsided.

Let’s CHOOSE to be positive no matter what life throws at us and no matter where we are in this moment in time.