Everyday Life Matters: The Power of #Thursday3
Make an everyday vulnerable post this week. If you are a woman, use the #Thursday3 hashtag on Facebook or Instagram.

If you’re not on social media, share an everyday vulnerable moment with a friend.

Extra Challenge: Commit to doing an everyday vulnerability post every week for a month...or year...or indefinitely.

Building Genuine Connections in Divided Times: The Power of Curiosity and Common Ground
During a conversation this week, practice one listening skill you know or have recently learned.

If you are feeling particularly confident in your communication skills, engage someone with an alternate viewpoint from yours in conversation, being curious, sharing perspective before position, and setting a foundation based on common ground.

For the ultimate challenge, if you have a story to tell, head over to The Podcast Collaborative website and consider offering to be a guest on a podcast that is a good fit. (You can get a link to their Facebook page from the website.)

Rediscovering Red: More Than Just an Oil Change
Take time to connect with a service person in your community this week, making them feel seen, heard, and appreciated.

From Ghost Trains to Pumpkin Patches: Finding Connection in Fall Festivals
Invite a friend to participate in one of your community's seasonal celebrations. Consider wearing something in your Hello Zone to invite interaction with others at the event

Communities Dedicated to Connecting to Nature
Connect with nature this week, especially if you are an introvert. If you are an extrovert, ask an introvert to join you. You might discuss how being in nature affects each of you. Does it energize you? Do you like to sit still and soak it in or have lots of movement through it? What are the different things you get from nature when you experience it with someone else rather than alone?

The Social Value of Cats: Creating Community Through a Feline-Focused Event
Maybe you already have a walkable community where it's easy for people to gather - perhaps you could organize a pet tour - or just invite a neighbor to take a walk with you and see how many community pets you can spot.

If you don't live in a gathering-friendly community, what can you do to advocate for more walkable spaces? What kinds of city or town planning projects can you support that allow for more spaces that create social value for your community?

From Cookies to Connection: Building Community One Plate at a Time
Connect with your neighbors this week - it can be someone next door or anywhere in your town, village, or city with whom you can interact more than once.

Roadside Surprises: How a Waving Doll and Fellow Drivers Make Me Feel Connected
Make your driving experiences this month, whatever they are  – long trips, work commutes, running errands – socially valuable to you and others by finding a way to connect, even if ever so briefly.

Growing Connections: How Care Farms Support People with Dementia
Share information on care farms and social farms with the families of those you know who might benefit.

That could be as simple as providing the link to this blog post or as involved as looking for local opportunities and sharing the information with the family.

You might even consider planning an outing to a farm or some time out in nature for a person with dementia this month. Invite their family as well as they know best how to ensure the person processes the outing for the best possible experience.

Bonus Challenge:

Share a playlist from the era a person with dementia will recognize; music is a powerful way to connect people with dementia to meaningful memories as mentioned in the Social Farms & Gardens - Care farming for dementia and older people YouTube post.

Head over to Mix Tape Journey as well to access a playlist for some soul therapy yourself this month and learn more about the power of music and memory. This month’s mix tapes include songs from the perspectives of people with dementia, caregivers, and loved ones. The first one Remember Who I Was (Side A) has already dropped.

The Curious Art of Connection: Grayson Perry’s Road to Understanding
Use genuine curiosity to form and ask questions of someone with a different perspective than yours.

Then listen.

Then ask a follow-up question (or two or three).

Then listen.

Try not to present your own perspective unless asked.

Brené Brown Would be Proud of these Hikers
How can you vulnerably and with courage share your life with your community?

Camp-Themed Wedding Complete with Capture the Flag Creates Community
Who in your circle of community can you connect with this week by asking for advice or a favor?

Happy Esther Day: Say I Love You!
Tell someone that you love them in honor of Esther. Maybe share some music as well or watch The Fault in Our Stars together.

Closet Cure for Loneliness: More Silliness Ahead!
I encourage you to download the list of 29 mission choices for the scavenger hunt. I challenge you to do at least three over the next week. You can either search for someone with the mission criteria as per the study or you can use it for inspiration to do up your nails in a striking manner, wear a bold animal print, or add some other fun element to your “Hello Zone.” When people engage you about it, notice how that makes you, and them, feel.

Evidence of Societal Change
Practice consent this week.

Ask others’ permission not just before hugging or physical intimacy, but also before touching them, asking a personal question, taking a photo, or any activity that might affect someone’s privacy, autonomy, or well-being.

Encourage and compliment the young people in your life who you witness taking these actions unprompted whether they have a water toy pointed at you or not.

Can You Create Connection by Saying Nothing?
Practice brief moments of silence as part of your communication this week.

Two Ways To Be a Silly Connector
Actively look for strangers doing something silly and become the first follower - join in and invite others to join in.

Or, be the person initiating something silly, perhaps with a few friends. How many strangers can you get to have a little fun and connect for just a moment, making everyone’s day brighter?

The Revival of Sacred Social Days
What is something you can commit to celebrating this year? Pick a date, choose some activities, and invite others to join you.  What rituals can you create to honor a particular value that is meaningful to you? Share in the comments or drop me a line – I would love to hear what you want to celebrate!

The 5Ws and How of Special People
No matter your age, who is a person in one of your communities with whom you can make it a point to connect consistently?

Bird flu health crisis: Is community the solution?
Identify someone you find believable, relatable, and credible in your community – whether they are in-person or online connections. Reach out to them and express your appreciation for who they are and the service they provide delivering information you trust.

A Dad Who Buys You $30 Grapes to Try!
Consider daily:  What messages do people around you need to hear?

Don't be afraid to tell those you encounter today you love them and are proud of them.

TIL I May Have Deprived a Crab of a Home
This week’s challenge is simple - get out and connect with nature. Take time to notice the habitat homes of the wildlife in the area you visit.

For an extra challenge, consider contributing in some way to make the habitat more friendly to the wildlife in your area. Maybe you can help clear invasive plants in an area nature preserve or provide bird houses in your yard or an area field.

I plan to create several sections in my back yard with tall grasses and bushes for the insects, bunnies, snakes, and birds to have places of shelter among all the closely grown grass in my suburban neighborhood.

My Cat Got Stuck in a Tree!
What talents and services can you offer to make your community more connected?

Celebrating 150th Anniversary of Rejected Artists
"It’s the ‘we’ that creates a school of thought, a movement, a network, a culture."

Who can you invite to be a "we" with you to create community in your town, city, or virtual world today?

It doesn’t need to be with some great aim to upend the status quo either, just who can you hang out with at the local coffee shop and have a meaningful conversation with this week?

Fitness Trainer Starts a Movement with 60 Seconds
What new skill can you commit 60 seconds a day to?

How can you use your personal challenge to connect with others by bringing them alongside you?

Connection provides freedom for neurodivergent man
Take a moment today to list what self-beliefs might be hindering your freedom. Choose one possibility you’d like to act on and take one small step – maybe it’s drafting a poem, inviting another person for a walk, or registering for a college course.  Take actions that connect you to others so they benefit from the value you have – take a step to build community.

Hiking Leader Makes Shocking Statement
Whatever types of outdoor groups you participate in – hiking, cycling, kayaking, running, walking, etc. – consider how you can help increase the social value of the group.

What steps can you take to ensure everyone is included and supported? This could be something as involved as discussing the group culture with leadership or something simple like taking the time to talk to someone who is new to an event.

How Canoecopia Creates Social Value

Golden Connection Challenge for Events:  Inspiration 
Make time to ask questions that continue conversations such as, “Tell me more about that, please.”

Golden Connection Challenge for Events:  Confidence
Strike up social conversations with others with whom you might not normally engage, perhaps asking to sit with someone at breakfast or chatting during an elevator ride

Golden Connection Challenge for Events:  Shared Experience
While sharing practical tips with one another, consider how you might increase social bonds by also sharing how you make sure everyone is included and valued in your community of interest.

Golden Connection Challenge for Events:  Being a part of history
Know the roots of your community, or start a community around an interest and invite others to join you – Dream big and start small!

Golden Connection Challenge for Events:  Acquiring skills
Any interest-based community has skills to learn from better bidding in the card game Euchre to a better forward stroke for kayaking. When you acquire more skill, you increase your opportunity to connect with others in that community.

Golden Connection Challenge:
I hope you have an activity you enjoy that offers gathering events in which you can connect with others in meaningful ways, perhaps even full-blown conferences. Seek out activity groups who have a mission of connecting people at the core of their purpose.

And, when you have an opportunity to attend a conference - or even a local meeting - take some time to engage and listen, really listen.

Knitting Community Responds to Drama

First, if you know a knitter personally, give them a shoutout for being part of a wonderful community and maybe share Emma’s vlog post with them.

Second, consider:  what learning communities do you belong to? How you are engaging, supporting, and lifting up others in the community? Give one of your communities - in-person or online - some love today by telling them how much they mean to you and/or by introducing a new person into the community.

Camera Project Changes Lives

When accessing your social media communities this week, look for opportunities to offer a few words of support, empathy, and encouragement to someone whose post touches you. When one person does that, it increases the social value between you, the poster, and the community – when hundreds, thousands, or 42,000 do it, it begins to change the entire culture of the community so that it can impact the world in meaningful ways like the HONY community through Brandon’s work - one guy with a camera and a project.

Peeps, Weird Headgear, and TB

Communicate with someone who you usually text with by a phone call instead today.

Are Brief Connections Worth our Time?

Engage a stranger today just a little longer than you normally might; try to make a connection that helps the person feel seen, heard, and valued as another human.

Do We Connect by Doing or Being?

Take some time today to be: "To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving."