Can you remember the last time you made a connection? It could have been with a person, a group, an idea, a place or an object. How did it make you feel?
Share a few words to help build a word cloud that I will share next month – no wrong answers, just what comes to mind!
As I thought about this, I realised that there were different ways I experience connection. For example, when new ideas or creative inspirations emerge, I would say I feel “tingly” or “excited”. However, my connection to animals and nature conjured “calming” and “mindful” sensations.
Whether I felt curious, content, or energised, I realised that the results were all dynamic, positive and valuable in some way. There are lots of things that can be said to make us human, but the ability to feel connection must surely be one of them.
Building connection has also been at the heart of my working life for many years, most recently through the Making it Happen (MIH) Project, funded by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) Public Health. For the past 5 years I worked for Action in rural Sussex (AirS) on this project in Wealden. It was a learning and exploratory project seeking to understand how an ABCD (asset-based community development) approach could help enhance and enable positive outcomes for people and communities.
The fundamental principles of ABCD are around building on existing strengths, facilitating connection and enriching relationships. By doing this, we can enhance the lived experiences of ourselves and others through what we are passionate about. The learning from this project has helped identify what is truly important to me in work and life and underpins my vision for how I can contribute to society using my own strengths and interests, which are unique to me, as yours are to you.
For me, the starting point is the connection we make to each other, to ideas, to interests and to the wider world. This, I believe, is the catalyst that leads to healing by stimulating dynamic and positive change for us as individuals and, as a consequence, to those around us. This is my personal philosophy that underpins the development of “Connection Heals”.
For more information on the legacy of the Making it Happen project, including evaluation, learning, a toolkit and more, please visit the website: Making It Happen