Why is community and connection so important?
The journey of self discovery, healing, and awakening to our heart has various facets.
It requires a lot of honest self reflection, deep questioning and confronting of our beliefs, traumas and insecurities, mindfulness and taking time to find stillness inside ourselves through practices like meditation.
While these things don’t necessarily require us to be in contact with other people, the element of community can be a powerful catalyst to amplify and support our inner journey. It not only supports us in our personal journey, but we also become an important part of something broader – support for others – which awakens aspects of our heart that we may not get in touch with otherwise.
We all have our own unique challenges to work through, which can sometimes leave us feeling like we’re doing this on our own. Yes, we have to put in the time to do our own inner work, but when we connect with others who are also doing their inner work, we realize we’re not alone on our journey.
There’s something that really speaks to our heart when we feel this.
Think about a time when you heard someone share a personally challenging story that you could really relate to.
How did that make you feel?
Did something in you soften as you realized you’re not the only one with that challenge in your life?
Community and Connection
When a group of people come together around collective goals or values, it creates a community that facilitates an important sense of connection… especially when people come together around principles and values like heart, truth, love, healing, awakening and inner transformation.
This sense of connection is a very special ingredient for inner transformation. It’s beautifully captured in the expression: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Think about that for a moment.
There’s a weaving of something quite magical and metaphysical that brings a warmth that speaks to our heart. The connection, created by the combined aspiration and intention of the community, supports the growth and transformation of everyone in the community in profound ways, because the web of connection is greater than all of the individuals combined.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Heart of Community
Community and connection also brings a sense of belonging and a feeling that we’re part of something greater than ourselves… and this naturally resonates with our heart – because our heart is the part of us that already feels connected.
Our heart is the essence of who we are, and from that place we know unity and connectedness with all things – nature, animals, people and the creation at large. So, when we feel our heart responding to the connection in a community of like minded people, it’s because we’re actually connecting to deeper aspects of our heart.
At the essence of community is heart.
The weaving of connection in the community is a weaving of heartness.
Support
Community, in the context of healing, awakening and inner transformation can be extremely precious.
The path to the heart requires a letting go of the beliefs, fears, traumas and insecurities that prevent us from being in our heart in the first place… and letting go of them means we’ll often feel our emotions with more intensity than we’re used to (especially if we’re not used to feeling our emotions).
As we let go of our old and familiar sense of self, healing and awakening can sometimes feel like dying. Uncomfortable and disorientating sometimes but part of inner transformation.
Here’s a video I made where I describe the challenge of change in more detail: Understanding Change: Why It Can Feel Uncomfortable And Painful At Times
We all step onto this path for different reasons, but the truth is, we really don’t know what’s ahead of us. We can’t know how intense our challenges will be or how vulnerable we’ll feel, but a community of like minded people creates this very special ingredient of connection, warmth and heart that energetically and emotionally support us on our journey.
It’s like being held by an invisible web of heart connection.
Find Your Community
If you’re on a journey of self discovery, healing or awakening, find your community of like minded people. It might be just a handful of people, it might be more, or it might be many, but find a community with heart that supports you.
You’re not alone!
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