The Reliants Project #41
How networks shape our lives
Thanks for signing up to all the new readers! Here are some nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours.
Wellbeing
Can you imagine that high levels of interpersonal trust might have reduced global infections by 40%? We rarely think about the ways in which trust impact our lives directly, it’s just like the air we breath and often taken for granted. This Pandemic preparedness and COVID-19 study looked at this and other contextual factors:
“Measures of trust in the government and interpersonal trust, as well as less government corruption, had larger, statistically significant associations with lower standardised infection rates…an increase in trust of governments such that all countries had societies that attained at least the amount of trust in government or interpersonal trust measured in Denmark, which is in the 75th percentile across these spectrums, might have reduced global infections by 12·9% (5·7–17·8) for government trust and 40·3% (24·3–51·4) for interpersonal trust.
Relationships
How are you "hiding-from-people skills? This Is How To Have Emotionally Intelligent Relationships: 4 Secrets From Research tackles some of the persistent challenges we face connecting with people we care most about. Eric breaks down the process into 4 (still difficult) steps:
Uncover Your Schemas: Relive a representative difficult moment in your mind. Notice what triggered you. Notice your feelings. And your-less-than-constructive response.
Watch, Don’t Act: Put yourself back in that situation for real. Just observe your feelings and the pull toward that negative behavior. Don’t give in. Just notice what goes on in your head and get a good look at the schema in action.Clarify Your Values: What kind of person do you want to be in your relationships? You get to choose. Yes, you do. So choose.
Defuse And Act On Your Values: When the situation happens again, remember that the thoughts and feelings the schema throws at you are not you. And they’re not accurate. They are not you. They are not true. I do not like green eggs and ham. Defuse them with “I’m having the thought that…” Then act on your values.
Community
Now that you know how important “who they know” is to your life, don’t you want to see what shape your community makes? Mapping the people we spend time with can help answer questions we have about our experience as social animals and surface hidden patterns that may not be obvious such as:
From whom am I most likely to get new information, opportunities, and ideas?
Which group(s) of people influence my habits and behaviours?
How resilient is my support network of advice and practical help?
Like what you read? There’s plenty more where that came from. You can check out my best performing newsletters here:
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 make better introductions, build better social products and services, or activate networks to make an impact in the world, let me help you reach your goals.
You can find more about The Reliants Project here.