Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life

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new friends to see if anyone wanted to hang out, for fear of rejection. And I know now that I’m not alone in feeling these things. Being a thinking, feeling human is challenging—especially in the digital age!

Here they are from the bottom up: Basic Human Needs: Food, Water, Shelter, Belonging, Love, Positive Touch** Physical and Mental Well-Being: Physical Health, Consensual Sex, Job, Home, Security, Presence, Cultivation of Curiosity Purpose: Service Orientation, Finding Your Purpose on the Planet That Benefits Humankind (Parenting, Community) Joy: Pla

Across all four levels of my updated hierarchy of needs is one unifying ingredient: community. Without a community supporting you at each level, it’s nearly impossible to move up the hierarchy. As psychologist Noam Shpancer wrote, “Human beings, fundamentally, are distinctly, spectacularly social. Lonely and isolated, we cannot survive, let alone t

define [be•long•ing] as: a feeling of deep relatedness and acceptance; a feeling of “I would rather be here than anywhere else.”

where you experience a sense of belonging.

Communities are built, person by person, through thoughtful design and authentic, energetic connection points.

Questions to ask yourself one by one AFTER you’ve plotted your life path: 1. Whom did you look up to? 2. Whom did you depend on? 3. Who kept you safe emotionally or physically? Who didn’t? 4. Who worried about you when you were feeling stressed? 5. Whom did you take for granted?

“Energy is a great equalizer in life. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or how much money you have—the energy you put out is the energy you get back. Negative energy breeds negative community. Positive energy breeds positive community. It’s that simple.”