Connection. Sadly, it’s often kind of rare right now to go through our daily lives and, at the end of the day, feel like we’ve truly connected with friends, family, colleagues, people with similar interests, and even ourselves. So, today let’s dig a little deeper and figure out how to achieve some real connectedness during this time of year when we’d normally have plenty of time to connect.
1) Call your loved ones
If you’re anything like me, you almost exclusively connect with people via text message. Pick up that phone and call your loved ones. Just give it a shot. Even if you don’t have anything to talk about. Sure it feels a bit awkward at first, but you’ll get over that.
2) Schedule FaceTimes
If you’re missing coffee meetups, dinner dates, or game night—guess what? You can still make it happen. Prioritize your quality time with others by scheduling a regular, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly get together. That’s the key, prioritizing and scheduling it. Hold yourself to it. Now you just have to practice making lattes at home.
3) Join a virtual club or fandom
Hanging out over virtual dinner with friends and family is nice, but sometimes you want to connect with people who just have similar interests to you. Think about joining a virtual book club, student club, check out some livestreamed concerts, anything that gives you a sense of community. Over the course of the pandemic, I have become a Directioner…don’t ask me how.
4) Have a socially distanced neighborhood event
Not too long ago, my mom curated a local block party by just leaving some homemade event flyers for her neighbors that told them a simple date and time to come outside. When the day came, she played some (appropriately volumed) music and it was pretty cool to see everyone dancing on their lawns. Now that the weather is changing, you could have a “best snowman in the neighborhood contest.” Just saying.
5) Connect with yourself
Challenge yourself to invest some time in something that makes you feel better about yourself. Try taking up yoga, meditation, or start a daily workout (even if it’s for just a few minutes). Build a new skill by taking up a hobby—and stick with it! Start a gratitude journal or try to do one act of kindness everyday. The goal is to know that after you finish this activity, you’ll feel better than when you started. Hey, you might even learn something new about yourself in the process.
5 ½) Have (and give) a laugh every single day
We miss people. So, let’s have a laugh about it.
