Can you spare three minutes to help your community and boost your happiness?

Original Medium Post HERE

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5 pillars and a 5-part approach for transformative, sustainable change

Image generated by Microsoft Designer. As part of making joy “the downhill path,” I’d love to have welcome signs like this for East Boston.

Our blog posts often go deep into facets of our community joy approach. This week, we zoom out with a summary guidesheet for increasing joy in community.

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Why we need community joy: We are facing a mental health crisis. Life expectancy has declined in recent years. Democracy is fraying. A community joy approach can address these challenges.

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Joy = Happiness x time (or sustained emotional wellbeing x time)

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Moral of our story: Joy lives in community. (Thus our term: community joy)

Joy is contagious, particularly when people live within a mile of each other. Increasing community joy is the most effective way to boost individual joy.

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Pillars of joy: These 5 items matter most (based on review of scientific literature, confirmed by expert advisors):

· Relationships. Long and strong close relationships and frequent interaction with a large group of acquaintances support joy and health.

· Purpose. A strong sense of purpose/ meaning supports joy and health.

· Fitness. Regular physical exercise fights anxiety and depression and boosts joy.

· Mindfulness. The world’s most joyful people meditate a lot.

· Fun. Play, laughter, recreation and balance are essential for joy and wellbeing.

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How to increase joy in community: A five-part approach to grow these 5 pillars for individuals and communities:

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· Make joy the “downhill path”: Make choosing joy/ incorporating pillars of joy in our lives easier than alternatives. Work together, using design, marketing, events, behavioral economics.

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· Work from the bottom up: Individuals can be “community joy ambassadors,” bringing pillars to neighbors. Organizations and businesses can launch joy events.

· Work from the inside out: People should take just enough action to support baseline personal joy, and then focus on supporting others’ joy. Focusing too much on one’s own joy can be counterproductive.

Organizations can boost staff joy. More joyful organizations will catalyze more joyful communities.

· Experiment and measure progress: Measure baseline joy and measure change over time. Use data to inform strategies. Experiment and adjust based on data.

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How to sustain joy:

· Embed joy in community culture

· Recognize impacts beyond joy. The joy pillars also promote health, democracy, increased earnings and more. Measure and report positive outcomes to grow funding and sustain this essential work.

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Stay joyful, East Boston.

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Please see other blog posts here for backup research and information.

Please share, subscribe, and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers. Look out each week for our posts about boosting joy the only way we can: in community. And join us in celebrating Joy:us on September 29.