Community Care as Self-Care: cultivating wellbeing for ourselves and each other
Community care is a big part of self-care, and are crucial to combat the stress contagion found in modern offices. Walk and talk sessions, celebration circles and creative workshops are all ways to harness the power of community care.
In today’s fast-paced life and work environments, wellbeing is more important than ever. As it’s one of the best ways to manage our wellbeing, this means self-care is also crucial – but did you know that community care is too?
How self-care and community care are connected
It might sound counterintuitive, but community care is actually a big part of self-care. As humans, we are hardwired for connection; just look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which shows love and a sense of belonging as central to humans surviving and thriving.
Emily and Amelia Nagoski describe connection, whether “with friends, family, pets, the divine …as necessary as food and water. Humans are not built to function autonomously; we are built to oscillate between connection and autonomy and back again.” [1]
So no matter how many pampering eye masks we buy, when we don’t have connection, our mental health suffers. It’s so serious, in fact, that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared loneliness a global health threat in 2023.
The importance of coregulation
Another element of community care as self-care is the idea of coregulation. Coregulation is when two or more people come together to create a nurturing and supportive environment that helps everyone involved manage feelings, stress, and return to a calm state.
Emily and Amelia Nagoski describe this as the “Bubble of Love”: “Certain kinds of connection create energy. When you share mutual trust and “connected knowing” with someone, you co-create energy that renews both people.” [2]
Coregulation and The Bubble of Love have tangible, physical effects too: The Maharishi Effect measured the stress levels of a large group of people mediating together, and found a significant decrease in cortisol levels just from being in close proximity to others in a mindful state. [3]
Community care as self-care vs the stress contagion
The shadow side of this is that just as self-care can be contagious in the right setting, so can stress.
This is particularly true in workplaces, which are breeding grounds for stress. We’ve all experienced the vibe shift in an office space or Slack channel when it’s obvious that someone’s not feeling it – soon, one person becomes two, becomes four, and before long you’ve got a whole community of dysregulated people at odds with each other, feeling angry, fearful, critical and quick to judge.
Because they’re both focussed on the effects of a group of people, this is why coregulation is the perfect counterbalance to stress contagion!
Benefits of community care in the workplace
What are the benefits of community care as self-care in the workplace?
On an individual level, a connected, co-regulated workforce increases employee happiness, satisfaction and productivity, and reduces burnout; on a communal level, it improves teamwork and collaboration. The creative nature of community care also fosters a sense of belonging, strengthening ties within your team.
And on an organisational level, this all helps employee retention and increased profit margins.
How to incorporate community care into your workplace
There are lots of brilliant ways to introduce community care into the workplace, including:
Walking Club, where you gather to mindfully walk and talk, stretching the brain and your legs
Celebration circles or joy rumbles, where your employees come together to celebrate wins of the week
Creative workshops, where your team can busy their hands to relax their mind.
Community care in remote teams
Though coregulation can still be highly effective online, part of it is a physiological response that can only happen in person. That’s why we recommend remote teams meet in person monthly (or quarterly, if monthly isn’t doable), to facilitate even deeper connections.
Creative workshops and retreats for community care
Looking to introduce some co-regulation and community care as self care into your workplace? At Recess Living we bring creative workshops to your office door to provide space for your employees to relax and unwind – or we can bring them to someone else’s door with our creative retreats and away days. Check out our workshops here and our retreats here.
Looking for more resources and inspiration around the art of gathering as a team? Subscribe to our newsletter, “Gathering”, here.
& 2. Source: Burnout the Secret to unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski | 3. Source: The Maharishi Effect from 1974 - 2017