Positivity: Community
Community is about finding belonging.
We all want to belong. We all want to find a place where we can have our people, surround ourselves with the like-minded to share experiences. That is how you form a community.
Some communities are wide-ranging and spread out over a broader spectrum of interest, like a specific city or town. Some are more specific, like a religious institution. Some are particularly specialized, like a club or volunteer organization.
It’s certainly possible to be a part of multiple communities. But finding community helps us to find others who share interests with us, and help overcome the sense of loneliness most people feel along the way.
Though not every community is for everyone, it’s important to remember that just because you don’t share the same religion or nationality or hobby, that doesn’t make anyone else lesser than you. What gives me a sense of belonging may feel utterly alien to you, and vice versa. It’s important to keep this in mind, because sometimes our sense of community goes from simply exclusionary to intolerant, and from that intolerance we develop misunderstandings that frequently get exploited by others to divide and conquer us.
Having a community we can call our own, however, allows us to share any number of thoughts, feelings, and even actions between one another. We get to express ourselves in a similar manner, and share our belonging with people who have at least this much in common with us.
Why do we need so much to belong? I think it’s a matter of human nature. We can only think for ourselves, we are all unique individuals; but we are social creatures, to a lesser or greater degree. We like to have somewhere comfortable where we feel as though we can be ourselves, but in a similar way to other people, and share the sense of belonging that creates. Despite all of us being the same in our human nature, the size and variable geography of this world frequently feels too big, too impersonal for most. So we find more manageable communities to be a part of, some by choice and some by time and place and largely random circumstance.
There is incredible positivity in finding a community you can call your own. Feeling as though you belong somewhere feels good, and the positivity that comes of feeling good allows us to build bigger and better things for ourselves. When we individually feel good, it’s easier to do things that help others out there feel good, too.
Having communities we feel a part of gives us strength when we need to remember that we are not truly alone.
Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action. Knowing that there are numerous communities with different attributes which we can become a part of, we have an amazing tool to create belonging. When we belong to a community, we create a shared space in which we can build more good, and when we feel good we empower ourselves. When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings in the collective consciousness. We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.
This is the one hundred sixty-fifth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.
In relation to Positivity, check out my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
