I'd like to share a story and some simple tips around creating community and connection by simply making a tiny bit more effort than the average person would.
So a really simple example that people find surprising in my own life is when I talk about how close I am to a lot of my neighbours and how some of my best friends actually live in the same building and in the same apartment Now this isn't by accident,
This hasn't happened by chance,
It's very much something that myself and a couple of others here have really worked hard to build and one of the ways that we've done that is through for example setting up whatsapp groups.
One very simple thing that I did was that every time I see somebody in the lift I would say hi,
I'd ask them if they live here and I'd ask if they'd like to be added to the whatsapp group.
Over time this grew and grew and that's been a great resource for kind of neighbours to help each other and get to know each other but the bigger gift for me was meeting some of the most important people in my life.
So as an example there's a family that have two little ones now and I've seen them kind of go through that journey and shared that and been part of that with them and I met them when they first moved in I think it was like an early Saturday morning they were going for a run and I asked them this simple question of oh are you on the whatsapp group and they were quite surprised at having a neighbour or like a stranger speak to them and now several years later they're some of the people I'm closest to in the world and it's because of putting myself out there and making that little bit more effort than what the average person would do and I think there's such a richness and magic in that and obviously there will be neighbours who sometimes have headphones in or aren't really open to speaking but for the most part I know almost all of my neighbours and it's added such richness to my life and that of others and in fact a lot of people who live here where I live have chosen to stay or gone from you know renting to buying a place here simply because of the community aspect and feeling a part of something.
In terms of what you can do on an even smaller scale is just getting into the practice and the habit of smiling at your neighbours if you're in the lift together or when you step out saying have a good day or have a nice evening you know you may or may not ever work your way up to having a fully fledged conversation or exchanging details but it kind of lays the groundwork of recognising people and building a community and also leading by example and showing other people that it's fine for them to say hi to their neighbours as well and even at a simple basic level exchanging a smile with somebody really does boost your spirits and I think for me at least makes me have a slightly better morning or day than I otherwise would have so I guess the takeaway is be the light make a little bit more effort than the average person would even if it's a little bit outside of your comfort zone because the payoff is definitely definitely worth it
