Embrace the Spirit of Community
WHY WE ALL NEED COMMUNITY IN OUR LIVES, NOW MORE THAN EVER.
We are in an age where we are more connected to people than ever before. While relationships seem to come and go far more rapidly, contact is instantaneous and our phones and social networks are making us increasingly more “social”, more and more people feel lonely and disconnected. Face to face and heart to heart connections are happening less and less due to busy work schedules, working remotely and/or relocating every few years.
As humans we evolved in tribes, not as solitary beings, and we need human interaction. In the West we do not live in the same house or village for generations and it can be hard to be part of a real community. In Bali, generations stay and live together in the same household for all their lives. Sharing and being in a community is heavily ingrained in the Balinese culture. Do you feel part of a community?
THE FEELING OF COMMUNITY
Over 7000 people visit BaliSpirit Festival every year from all around the world, gathered together with a shared appreciation of yoga, dance, music and well-being. What draws so many people back year after year is the feeling of community. For many it is an unexpected feeling and hard to describe, just profoundly felt as who we surround ourselves with enormously impacts us. Positive, happy people lift us up, boosting our feel-good endorphins, whilst negative people can drain us and often pull us into a downward spiral of their negativity.
POSITIVE ENERGY ATTRACTS MORE POSITIVE ENERGY
So naturally, being around thousands of high vibrational souls all gathered in tropical Bali, practicing yoga, dancing and meditating together is an elevating, happy and healthy experience. It is a unique and often emotional experience for people, who unite together each year, taking time away from the digital world. To be outside, sharing the same values, sharing gratitude, love and peace through yoga, meditation or ecstatic dance. BaliSpirit Festival is a place to rediscover and be inspired by the power of community, enabling us to be fully present and giving us a chance reflect on ourselves. Being with others allows us to see ourselves more clearly, where we are, be that our role in the community or in our own life.
GIVING BACK TO COMMUNITY
Proceeds from BaliSpirit Festival fund local environmental and social missions. AYO! Kita Bicara HIV & AIDS works to educate and empower youth as the agent of change, to encourage honest and compassionate dialogue on HIV & AIDS and assist teenagers in preventing HIV infection. Bali ReGreen is a sustainable environmental project fighting land degradation in the island’s driest areas while also educating and training the people who inhibit the land. Being part of a community is also about knowing that your presence contributes to important and worthwhile causes.
I just want to leave you something to think about the next time you are watching a friends Snapchat story or scrolling through photos on Instagram, to “connect” whilst avoiding actual human interaction…Just think about what a feel-good, spiritual community and experience could do for you, your health and the people around you. Try for the new year, to get out and spend more time with people, not just in the holiday season, and surround yourself with a community however big or small that may be.
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Written by Maeve Nelligan for BaliSpirit Festival Blog