Community Building Games, Exercise, & Routines

At Habitats for Happiness regular gatherings occur that are less about decision making and more about celebrating. Music, dance, sharing food, and other group activities that build relationships and contribute to the sense of fun & enjoyment of each other’s presence are strongly encouraged. Communication tends to flow naturally during such events without feeling pressured, heavy or required.
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Community is made strong by the inter-relatedness of its members, which is best formed within the context of fun, enjoyable activities. While every Community is free and welcome to define its own set of Events, Holidays, exercises, and activities, here are a few that seem to work particularly well:​

Sharing Meals

Since the dawn of time, we have evoked community by cooking and eating together. Sharing meals and eating together at least five times a week contributes tremendously to the sense of community and inter-relatedness among members. 

Open Classes

Teaching classes gives members an opportunity to shine and be recognized for their expertise. Classes can be on anything the member wishes to share. When the topic is directly relevant to the Center's purpose, culture, values, a project it is engaged in or a problem it is facing, then the class becomes even more valuable. Topics related to personal development are also fantastic.

Storytelling

Story-telling, especially deeply personal stories (sharing moments that have shaped you, or reveal what you cherish) weaves a fabric of community relationships that creates resilience in times of crisis, resourcefulness in times of need. Story-telling can also be used to symbolically summarize & solve problems.

​If we hope for deep, rich & meaningful relationships, we have to reveal more of who we are: the more you know about another person’s journey, the better you can understand the depth and richness of their humanity.

Appreciations & Accomplishments

Stand up & praise others publicly! Appreciating things you love is one of the best ways possible to encourage & engender more of it. ​​

One business uses a practice they call "Gratitude Friday": Every Friday anyone may choose to send an email to the entire organization recognizing and thanking another person or team for something that happened that week, or simply to share some good news. The first email invariably triggers a whole avalanche of thanking and recognition, which builds community and closes the week in a spirit of appreciation and gratitude.

Music & Dance

Weekly Ecstatic Dances, ​Art Salons, musical jam sessions, singing groups, potlucks (or all the above at once)

Reflective Spaces

Community buildings or natural spaces dedicated to meditation, prayer, silence, emergence of truth, yoga, and other practices that enhance contemplation and quiet the mind.

Theme Days

These are days dedicated to a specific theme. They tend to be fun, bring people together, and elicit special memories. For example:
  • Days of Silence: A powerful practice that temporarily changes the entire communication landscape
  • Days of Thankfulness dedicated to gratitude for all the blessings you get to enjoy
  • Values Day or Community Day: A celebration of the Center's Birthday that includes activities designed to revisit the Values and Purpose of the organization & realign members with them, plus lots of fun – singing, dancing, etc… A day for members to celebrate and reaffirm their commitment to the community’s extraordinary culture.
  • ​Blissmass: like Christmas, but focused on Bliss…
  • Pajama Day
  • Community Easter Egg Hunt,
  • New Year’s Eve Celebration: Possible themes might include “What has gone really well this year that we might celebrate? To what extent have our accomplishments manifested our intended Purpose? What are we excited to do next year?” etc…

Rituals

Starting every day with a brief and joyful moment (i.e. at breakfast), such as a song, "good or new" ritual (where everyone mentions something Good or New), or appreciations/gratitude for something. This is kind of like saying Grace or Giving Thanks before a meal, but broader. It may be personal, communal, or spiritual.

Meetings

For Habitats for Happiness that choose to use meetings instead of the online decision-making process, the priority becomes to ensure that everybody’s voice is heard, egos are kept in check, and no-one dominates. Here are a few rituals that can help with that:
  • starting each one with a ritual designed to calm the mind and create harmony within the group (such as singing, a moment of silence, prayer, or appreciations).
  • Closing each one with a feel-good ritual.
  • Using a harmonic resonator such as properly tuned cymbals, chime or bell to restore harmony when things grow tense. Anyone can ring the bell, and when sing, everyone is silent until the last sound dies out, ideally reflecting quietly whether their current position is in service to the community’s greater values.
  • Including an "Empty Chair" in every meeting. The empty chair represents the Organization’s Life & Purpose. Anyone from the group can sit in at any time and listen in from the Organization’s perspective rather than their own.
  • Artistic collaboration to facilitate particularly large or difficult topics

Miscellaneous

  • Retreats, camping trips, campouts, and adventures
  • Collectively envisioning the future that the Center wants to evoke
  • Thinking in terms of Stewardship rather than ownership​
  • Periodically reconnecting with the Center's Mission, Core Values, and Assumptions in as active and hands-on a way as possible