Creating meaningful connections

In life, online, in our writing

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

I crave connection and community. I work to build it every day. My nomadic life means that most of my connections are online nowadays. It’s not the same as being together in real life where we can hug hello and goodbye (I’m a massive fan of big squeezy hugs!) but I’ve built what feel like real friendships with people all over the world in the past five years through my work and since starting to write on Substack. In real life, I try to meet up with friends as often as I can and wherever I go, I make new ones.

Despite wanting to feel connected and part of a community, I closed down my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) several years ago as they no longer felt like positive experiences for me. I am a quiet soul who tries to live a peaceful and authentic life and the debates and rants inherent on those platforms, the political posturing, the carefully curated lives, left me feeling anxious and sad. I knew that to enhance myself so I could enhance my connectedness with others I had to find a new way to connect with people. So I started writing this newsletter.

Then shortly after I started writing on Substack, Notes was launched and my initial reaction was: “Oh no, it’s going to be just like other social media platforms now.”

But for a long while it wasn’t. And while there are still positive elements about Notes, I am finding it way too noisy and I feel like I need to step back from it for my own wellbeing. Almost seven years ago now, I made a conscious decision to no longer allow the news into my life — I don’t watch or listen to it, I don’t read newspapers. I believe we create our own reality and the one I am choosing to create is not one filled with despair, violence and division.

Which is not to say that I am not aware of the horrible things that many people around the world have to endure. But constantly filling my mind with it, is not a positive way to be. I do what I can to help different causes in many different ways, which I won’t be in a position to do if my mind is filled with negativity and anxiety.

So how can I continue to foster connectedness and community if I don’t take part in Notes? On my new website, I have created a community space for mindful writers to come together and be together online in a peaceful and uplifting way. Membership is included with all of the courses or it can be signed up for separately for a small annual fee to cover the costs of the platforms I use to provide it.

I believe that if we create positive connections and behaviours together in a community, this spreads into our lives online and off and into everything we write. That way, we can create the reality we want and work to be the change that we want to see in the world. We can use our lives and our writing to spread peace, joy and unity and bring much needed love into the world. We can write stories and poems, essays and plays, that connect with the common humanity in everyone and use our words to make people, and ourselves, feel less alone in the challenging times we find ourselves in.

The Mindful Writer Community is space for mindful writing where we can be social online away from the noise of social media platforms.

I’m hoping it will grow into a haven for thoughtful, heart-centred and compassionate discussions that help us to grow and develop as humans and writers in the time we find ourselves living in.

What’s included?

• Mindful writing and journal prompts.

• Inspiring insights from inspiring people.

• Daily Gratitude space to share what we're thankful for.

• Chat space to share thoughts, ideas and interesting links on living and writing with mindful intentions.

It’s a work in progress and will develop as we go along. All suggestions for what you’d like to see there are welcome.

If you’d like to be social online but find that social media is not working for you, I’d love to have you with us over there to live, write and grow mindfully together. Join us.

I am still going to be writing on Substack and running the Mindful Writing Marathons, and reading and connecting with the wonderful writers I’ve befriended here (here’s looking at you in particular

Don Boivin

,

Emily Conway

,

Lizzie Swift

,

Kert Lenseigne 🌱

,

Pamela Leavey

,

Dave Karpowicz

,

Teri Leigh 💜

,

Andō

and Jeanne Malgrem) in the comments in their posts. I just won’t be hanging out on Notes very much anymore.

How about you? How have you been finding your Substack and Notes experience? Do let me know in the comments as I love hearing from you and about you.

With love,

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