How Do You Know You’ve Found A Wellness-Supporting Community?

Finding a community that supports your wellness and helps you achieve the health you’ve always wanted is paramount. The people close to you can have a vast influence on how you feel and what you think you can do.

 

Communities are essentially just groups of people. But because humans are such social creatures, they can have an outsized effect on wellness. Studies show that being in the right team or neighborhood can lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of allergies, and even make you live longer.

 

But how do you know you’ve found the right place for you? What are the key criteria?

Well, you’re about to find out. In this post, we look at some signs you’ve found a fantastic wellness-supporting community. Here’s everything you need to know.

 

Shared Goals

 

One feature of a wellness-supporting community is that it has shared goals. People aren’t working against each other and causing problems. Instead, the entire community is allied in its effort to improve the quality of life for everyone.

 

Sometimes these goals have to do with well-being, but not always. Even so, that doesn’t tend to matter a great deal. Whenever people work together toward something positive, it improves the health of the community as a whole. That might explain why tight-knit communities in poorer countries can have excellent longevity, even if they are living on half the income of their Western equivalents.

 

Respect For Boundaries

 

Another feature of wellness-supporting communities is their respect for boundaries. These groups are empathetic and understand that there’s a limit to how far you can intrude on someone’s personal and psychological territory before it will begin to harm their well-being.

This sense of empathy is often hard-wired into these communities. People want to help each other and be kind. They don’t want to impose themselves or demand too much.

 

For example, wellness-promoting communities don’t try to get everyone to take part in activities they don’t enjoy. They also make sure people are comfortable with whatever is being arranged, whether that’s a street carnival or book club.

 

Sharing Knowledge And Resources

 

You also find a trend toward sharing knowledge and resources in wellness-supporting communities. People actively want to help each other, instead of working against one another’s interests.

 

In many places, people live atomized lives, never talking to their neighbors (or even knowing their names). But in positive communities, that’s not the case. Instead, you can live closer to your biological niche. Humans aren’t meant to be alone for most of their lives. Rather, they are meant to be in a community with dozens of people and tight-knit relationships with each other. Everyone should be able to call everyone else by name.

 

Offering Practical Tips

 

The best communities go beyond sharing knowledge and resources and provide residents with actionable tips to improve their lives and boost their health. Much of this comes from individual citizens’ life experiences, allowing them to share what works for them and why.

 

Practical tips are useful because it means you can get more done. It also enables you to take action in a way that might not be possible in a conventional setup.

 

For example, some communities show their members how to adopt healthy eating habits. These might include taking them to a cooking class or showing them the difference between high and low-quality foods.

 

It could also include information about exercise. Many communities provide resources for residents to keep slim and active (and avoid a sedentary lifestyle). They might even run various groups, like a jogging club, or a team that goes cycling on Sundays.

Focusing On Holistic Well-Being

Wellness-supporting communities and developments also focus on holistic well-being (not just one aspect of being healthy). This way, they can tackle every aspect of life, instead of compartmentalizing it.

Holistic well-being includes:

• Physical health
• Social connections
• Mental well-being
• Spiritual well-being

Some inner-city communities are okay for physical health, like condos with on-site gyms and saunas. However, they don’t always have the best social connections, and tiny apartments might not be conducive to mental health because of the lack of space.

Likewise, suburbs are good for space and physical activity but sometimes lack the social connections you want for a full life. You can’t always get to know neighbors unless there’s a community hub, which is rare.

Stunning Environment

Another way to tell you’ve found a community with wellness at its core is the quality of the environment. This is one of the reasons luxury real estate is so sought-after: it makes people feel better because it is so beautiful.

Ideally, you want a community with plenty of green space and gaps between homes (so you’re not living on top of each other). Properties should have private enclaves that feel like genuine escapes. They should also have community centers where people can go to socialize. Golf clubs, marinas, and sports centers are all excellent additions that tell you you’re in a place that cares about bringing its people together.

If you are planning a move, you should know whether a community is right for you in the first few minutes. Simply observing your surroundings and paying attention to green spaces, parkland, and architecture often provides the data you need.

If the environment doesn’t look great but you still like the area, probe a little deeper. Sometimes things are still under development (and that’s stopping them from looking polished). Other times, there are cultural or heritage reasons for why a certain place looks like it does. Knowing this can let you know if it is the right choice for you.

Positive Encouragement

You also want to live in a community that offers positive encouragement. Ideally, you want people around you to tell you what you’re doing is good or bad, instead of leaving you to your own devices.

This sort of respectful community is what builds great cultures and societies. While it might seem so small, the effects can be profound. You feel part of something bigger than yourself and you begin developing real ties with the community. You soon see that everyone really is in it together.

Pleasant Interactions

Another sign you’ve found a wellness-supporting community is the sheer number of pleasant and helpful interactions you observe. In tight-knit communities, members treat each other with respect, regardless of whether they are rushing to work or not.

These pleasant interactions can actually be quite small things. It might be something as simple as waving to you in the morning or clearing up litter from shared spaces.

What you’re looking for, again, is people who take pride in their communities. You want to see that there’s a love of the environment and that people aren’t just using it as a means to an end.

Meets Your Needs

Lastly, you know you’ve found a wellness-supporting community if it offers things that meet your specific needs. These could be everything from mobility access to vegan food.

It’s a good idea to go and try it out before you finally move in and take the plunge. Gathering more information can help you decide on whether it is the right place for you. If it does have what you’re looking for, that can make all the difference and swing moving to a community in its favor.

 

You should know within a few minutes or hours whether a community is the right fit for you. Don’t worry if you don’t find one immediately. Just keep searching until you discover something that “clicks” and just feels right for you.