The holiday season is in full swing and for many of us, it all just looks and feels different than when we were kids. Over 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the last 25 years, meaning that communal Sundays and structured lessons in forgiveness and giving aren't as consistent anymore for us and our children. Although many Americans have found other communal organizations to replace church, a lot also haven't.

The longing for community and organized religion that so many of us feel right now shows us the sense of tradition, love, and belonging that we're looking for which is essential to our mental health. And it's completely related to the huge loneliness pandemic that is going on right now. As I always tell my kids: Loneliness is the new smoking.

Let's listen to the absence of communities that we feel most now around the Holidays and do something different this year for our own and our kid's mental health.

In this episode on community around the Holidays, we discuss:

The ways we connect with people are changing and affecting our mental health;
How the Holidays and our traditions around them look very different now from the ones we grew up with and how this affects us;
Where's the longing for belonging and community coming from that we feel even more around the Holidays?;
Our society promotes individualism over community;
Simple ideas on how to teach our kids to give to others this Holiday season;
And more!

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More info? You can find the full show notes, links and resources over at:

https://wwhttps://activeconnected.com/beat-loneliness/w.activeconnected.com/community-holidays/