The older children are when they get their first smartphone, the better their mental health later in life. That’s little consolation to teens feeling left out when all their friends are connected., which hosts substance-free dances at multiple locations. They welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, from babies to grandparents. They begin with a meditation circle, reminding people to dance as they please while respecting people’s boundaries.
“It’s a space for a pause to be pressed on the bullhorn that is being blasted out of, ‘you’re not safe, you can’t trust people,’” the group’s Black co-founder Atasiea Kenneth L. Ferguson, 39, told me., people of all ages and running levels — mostly Latinos — can exercise and connect in a city lacking green spaces. “If you run or walk half of it, nobody’s gonna be judging you,” Rolando Cruz, a 40-year-old Mexican American resident, told me.
Other groups teach better listening and communication. My Italian American friend Laura Paragano, 32, whom I met through agroup, has found fun, insight and belonging in improv comedy, which she started last summer. “Growing up, I felt like I wasn’t allowed to be big and gregarious and dramatic and take up space,” she told me. “I’ve found improv to be the perfect practice in doing exactly those things.
We can all benefit from those lessons. It’s time to stop making our worlds so small. A good place to start is to learn something new, get out into the community and experience some joy with other people who might surprise you.