FROM all the people I spoke to last year, connection with each other was what they looked forward to most in their post-lockdown world. They missed the hugs, the physical get-togethers, the shared meals.
The holiday season and warm summer months have potentially offered the space to re-connect with family, friends and community, and there have certainly been more gatherings in the park.
But how have we handled the increase in social interaction? Did we embrace the opportunity to focus on implementing one of the small nudges from our December column, and therefore found our ‘social battery’ was fully charged? Or did we find that it ran out quicker than expected and was uncomfortably slow to recharge?
Why leave sustainability to our environment? By investing in ourselves and our inward connection first, we are investing in each other, and thereby in our community because we have far more capacity to be present, to care, to listen, to laugh.
Without this investment, we may find that, as much as we want to be out socialising and re-connecting, our deeper instinct is to scuttle back home and draw the curtains for a few days to recharge.
The new normal is calling for a new level of sustainable fitness that honours what we now know about our social battery limits.
To build consistency and sustainability, we have to rebuild a level of fitness that can manage the diverse social interactions and connections over a repeating cycle of days.
Top tip for the next month – continue that science experiment with your body! Keep looking at what recharges the battery and what depletes it. Let’s give ourselves permission to personalise our fitness program and encourage each other to embrace our very own human Sustainable Connected Community.
