Have you become accustomed to the decline in neighborliness at home and in the workplace?

Today, most of us either live in apartments without knowing who lives on the other side of our walls or we enter our homes through the garage and hangout in our fenced-in backyards. At work, we don’t always know the folks on the next team or in the next office.

What happened to chatting with people on our front porch like our grandparents did back in their day? Or spending some time around the old watercooler?

Thanks to COVID-19 we’re now more worried than ever about keeping our physical distance from others. And it’s even harder to figure out if others are open to a chat or not with facemasks becoming the norm.

While physical distancing does not mean social distancing it’s still just that little bit harder to make connections.Though, we’re wired to connect.

Humans are a social species and we have a deep need to feel connection and belonging with others. Study after study suggests that when we do, we feel: Happier, More satisfied with our lives, and much more successful in achieving the things that matter most.

In fact, one psychologist, the late Christopher Peterson advocated that the path to happiness could be summed up in three words: “Other people matter.”