Thanks to all the new readers for signing up for The Reliants Project newsletter! Here are some nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours.
Wellbeing
New research shows that Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger. This study the latest of many that are helping us understand how loneliness and social isolation negatively impact our physical health and perpetuate disease.
“According to this hypothesis, since social connection is an innate need, animals evolved neural system to regulate ‘social homeostasis’. The current findings suggest that there is a similar mechanism underlying social craving in humans, and that people who are forced to be isolated crave social interactions in a similar way as a hungry person craves food.”
Relationships
Let’s stop using network as a verb. It’s not serving any of us. Using it as a dirty word creates a false dichotomy. Building a relationship doesn’t exist on a linear scale from effortless, organic connection to selfish, calculating value extraction. There are axes for both effort and intent. If we all spent a little more time cultivating relationships between ourselves and among our community, imagine what we could do?
Community
Last week in The New Yorker, Atul Gawande outlined what he felt were the key ingredients to successfully emerge from lockdown. As he reflected on his experience, he noticed that,
“Culture is the fifth, and arguably the most difficult, pillar of a new combination therapy to stop the coronavirus. People tend to focus on two desires: safety and freedom; keep me safe and leave me alone. What Doyle says she needs her people—both staff and residents—to embrace is the desire to keep others safe, not just themselves.”
Culture is the sum of a community’s behaviours and these behaviours spread through our network of relationships. In How Behavior Spreads, Damon Centola shows how complex behaviour changes (e.g. wearing masks, maintaining social distance) require multiple instances of social reinforcement from our network in order for them to stick and spread.
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About The Reliants Project
Reliant is my word for a person that someone depends on, an essential component of our social networks. With each edition, I’ll share useful nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours. Whether you want to cultivate your relationships, make better introductions, or activate networks to make an impact in the world, let me help you reach your goals.
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