For the past year, I’ve lived in community either with the gang at Valhalla or at the various Eco-villages I’ve visited on my travels. Living in community can mean sharing a house, a neighbourhood or an entire village. No matter what kind of community you live in, you’re guaranteed to have a crazy experience and here’s why!
1) You’re Surrounded By People Who Share Similar Values
When you build or join the community that’s right for you, you surround yourself with people who care about the same things, share the same ideas and are co-creating similar projects as you. Your neighbours become people who have so much in common with you that you look forward to talking to them on a regular basis.
2) So Much To Learn, So Much To Teach
Being surrounded by people with similar values creates space for sharing. The opportunity to learn about new things is endless, and you get to share what you know to people who are really interested. To top it off, when all these ideas mix, you come up with new ideas that couldn’t have been figured out on your own!
3) You Connect To People On A Deep Level
In community, you quickly learn to treat everyone around you as a member of your close family. You open up to people like you’ve never expected to open up before. This leads to a very deep connection to many other human beings (whereas usually we are only connected to our direct family, significant others and close friends).
When you’re having a hard time, you’re surrounded by people who love you and are connected to you. People who will give you the moral support you need to get past anything and grow!
4) You Push Each Other For The Better
You become so connected to the members of your community that you want every single one of them to grow and thrive on every possible level. If you need support in having a healthier lifestyle, a more self-empowered attitude, in following your greatest passion, or in a higher education, you will always have people around you who will gladly push you to do it. They may even take on the challenge with you!
5) You Find Teammates Easily For Projects You Want To Start
Have you dreamed of brewing your own beer? Wanna figure out how to build a homemade solar heater? Wanna go on a walk in the woods and find wild mushrooms? Or start a band? You’ll most likely find people in your community who would love to do it with you! You could easily juggle a few projects with different people within the community if you really want to.
6) There’s Always Something Fun Going On
Whatever it is you find fun, whether it’s just hanging out around a fire or playing a sport. There’s always someone or a group of people doing something fun. Bored? Just look/ask around and you’ll find them for sure!
7) You Count On Your Community
Whenever you need someone to take over some responsibility (The kids, your home, anything really) you have tons of people who love you so much that they’ll gladly do it for you. And since there’s so many people involved, it won’t be a huge weight on anyone. At Valhalla we’re constantly asking each other for help. We each have our skill sets and know that the favor would be passed on someone else.
8) Your Expenses Will Lower
Some of your needs cost less because you get it in bulk for the community. Others will come from within the community, whether it’s goods or services. This gives you more time to enjoy and appreciate life!
9) It’s Great Therapy
Living in community can be difficult at first, so many different personalities that all get upset over different things. As you get to know everyone better, not only will you learn more about how people like to be treated, you will notice what it is that causes you to feel in specific ways. Community is a place where personal growth happens at a much faster rate! And when you come out of it, you find yourself to be much more comfortable with yourself and around other people.
10) You Make Friends For Life
Whether you choose to stay in a specific community for a year or forever, you’ll be making friends for life. Living in community creates experiences that bring people together and you’ll have great memories of the good and the bad!
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Are you looking to start a community or learn how to create more community in your life? I’m willing to bet that there are people in your area who want to do the same! And you can always keep an eye on Valhalla’s website, Facebook page and events page.
On March 5th 2014, there’s an event in Montreal on how to build more collaborative spaces. This event will not only have speakers to talk about how to build it, but will also create space for exchanges amongst guests to talk about their projects and how they want to create community at home, in their neighbourhoods or at the office.
Make sure to sign up here!
—About The Author—
Marty Nasralla
Hey! I love to connect with people and learn about their various philosophies on life. I love to ponder and spend a lot of my time questioning things just to get a better understanding of it. I believe that exploring who we are on a personal level creates a greater change in the world than anything else.
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