Loneliness Epidemic Episodes

This week's episode delves into the importance of joy in life, especially during challenging times, exploring the significance of creating art or engaging in creative activities every day to maintain balance and counteracting negative thoughts. The episode emphasizes the transformative power of joy, even in the face of hardship, and encourages listeners to embrace and prioritize joy in their lives. Fawn and Matt, share personal experiences and discuss a seven-day program called "Big Joy" based on a citizen science project at UC Berkeley, designed to increase emotional well-being and cultivating joy. The big reminder: JOY, especially in times of hardship, when times are hard, guy, when there's so much sorrow, when things are scary, you need joy. Joy is our life force.Do not feel guilty about experiencing joy. You need to. It is a necessity. It is a life force. #TheArtOfFriendship, #OurFriendlyWorld, #TheArtOfJoy, #JoyChallenge, #BigJoy, #GreaterGoodScience, #UCBerkeleyJoyProject,…

This podcast episode delves into personal experiences with prejudice and discrimination, discussing the emotional impact and strategies for coping. Fawn recounts encountering prejudice in a new group, reflecting on the pain, shame, and feelings of being disregarded or unseen due to racism. The episode outlines steps to address such emotions, emphasizing acknowledging pain, accepting grief, seeking support, and nurturing oneself physically and emotionally. Fawn shares a transformative shift in perspective by communicating her desires to the universe, leading to a change in how she perceives the situation, ultimately aiming for a harmonious experience. Please tell everyone you can about our efforts in bringing back the art of friendship and transforming our society for the better. Click the subscribe button on our website:https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/AND...Have a BEAUTIFUL EVERY DAY! And if you are able, please donate by buying us a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee…

Like friends that are totally different from one another, coexisting through their different personalities and creating a healthy relationship with different perspectives, so too can joy and grief be friends in the same way.This week we ask how we marry joy with hard times, what happiness versus joy really is.We may feel there isn't a tie between joy and grief. The definition of JOY is: Rejoice, to rejoice, comes from rejoice, to come together, What does rejoice really mean? To rejoice in something. To come together. You're not separate. So why should we separate joy from the rest of life?We also discuss the pendulum effect, where things should have been balanced all along but because it wasn't, we need, or society then provides, zeitgeist maybe just provides this kind of hard lesson one way and then a swing back and then a swing the other way and a swing back until it eventually lands somewhere in the middle.

Dealing with change can make us all anxious. During a time of transition, everyone is experiencing a little bit of trepidation, a little bit of wondering what's going to happen. This is the perfect time to remind each other that it's going to be okay. Appreciate this time. Don't fret about anything. Appreciate what's in front of you right now. If there's a problem, know that it's happening for the best, and listen to these ten things that may help. #Anxious, #anxiousness, #theArtOfFriendship, #transitioningThroughLife Please tell everyone you can about our efforts in bringing back the art of friendship and transforming our society for the better. Click the subscribe button on our website:https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/AND...Have a BEAUTIFUL EVERY DAY! And if you are able, please donate by buying us a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/friendlyspace

When we think of integrity, we think of the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, blah, blah, blah. But it also tends to go towards the division; “I have integrity. You don't, I believe in such and such, and you don't. Therefore you don't have integrity.”This week we look at the deeper meaning of integrity and how the art of friendship plays a role in shaping our society. The other meaning, the etymology of integrity is a state of being whole, undivided, a state of being whole and undivided, the condition of being unified, unimpaired. The The adjective form of integrity is integer, integral, complete, perfect, intact, untouched.We ask who benefits from a divided community and who benefits from this kind of thing. Let's look at how we can be whole and undivided as people. Thoughts? Click the microphone icon on https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/ and leave us a kind voice message. Please tell everyone you can about our efforts in bringing back the art of frie…

This episode takes us on the journey of discovering why we don't talk about certain things, why we don't talk, period, why we don't expose what we're going through, and why we don't share what we've been through. How did we reach this point in our culture that there is no village, that there is not a space where we can hold one another and hear each other's stories? Please tell everyone you can about our efforts in bringing back the art of friendship and transforming our society for the better. Click the subscribe button on our website:https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/ AND...Have a BEAUTIFUL EVERY DAY! And if you are able, please donate by buying us a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/friendlyspace

The word and the topic of this week's episode are desiderata, a plural noun with a singular form. Desideratum means things wanted or needed.Desiderata is a famous poem written by an American poet, and lawyer Max Ehrmann in 1927.There's such an immediacy to this poem even though it was written back in the 1920s. Even though it was written hundred years ago, it still feels fresh and it is what we all need to hear RIGHT NOW. Please tell everyone you can about our efforts in bringing back the art of friendship and transforming our society for the better. Click the subscribe button on our website:https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/AND...Have a BEAUTIFUL EVERY DAY! And if you are able, please donate (what you can) by buying us a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/friendlyspace

If I can reiterate the whole reason why we're here, it is to prove, to show, that we are not alone. You are not alone. Sometimes life is an absurdity, that's when you cross over into the realm of absurdity, and all you can do is just laugh at it and that's it. Sometimes everything can suck, BUT it won't always suck. YOU CAN MOVE THROUGH IT! The “sucky” times wil not last! Things will get better. Pick up a free copy of Fawn's workbook on making friends https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/ CALL TO ACTION: PLEASE SHARE OUR PODCAST WITH OTHERS

The whole platform for our podcast is the art of friendship, and at the root is the art of communication.In discussing self-awareness, taking a look at ourselves and how we operate. Getting to know who we truly are, how we react to things, what our history is, why we think a certain way, why we act a certain way, what makes us introverted?What makes us like an outgoing person? What makes us want to do what we're doing? Like, where does all that come from? Understanding that will help us to understand others. SELF: (noun) a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action. A person's particular nature or personality, the quality that makes a person individual or unique. One's own interests or pleasure used ironically to refer to oneself as someone else. Like for example, "The only side worth supporting is your own sweet self. "Okay, SELF (verb): Self Pollinate Self-fertilize. Here's an example. " A va…

I want to talk about the loneliness epidemic. People are talking about it like it's something that the pandemic brought about, but it's not. It has been here for a long time. The loneliness epidemic was here long before the 2019 pandemic, but people were more likely to speak about it, speak about the fact that they were at home alone, or they felt loneliness, that they felt like, wow, I don't have anyone near me. I don't have someone to turn to. I want to say, don't blame the pandemic. This is something that's been here long before. It's been happening decade after decade. It came to a point where I think, and I've said this before, I think that people felt ashamed, that it was their fault that they didn't have any friends, which meant that there was something wrong with them. But what we noticed was throughout the decades, it was getting worse and worse, and that you are not at fault.

Today's topic is having anxiety about the future. Let's fix our mental and physical posture. Are we looking at the future that's not good but we're forced to pursue? This brings us to the one word for the podcast episode today, which is Auger. What does it mean and how can it help shape our fate? Are we truly hopeful about the future? Are we OK with the direction that life is taking? It's about where are we going or not going. Is something happening too fast? Is something changing in your life that doesn't feel right? How many of us are feeling these things, and what can we do about it?

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school, but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you haven't learned anything"- Muhammad Ali. " Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought nor sold, but its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold. For gold is cold and lifeless. It can neither see nor hear. In times of trouble, it's powerless cheer. It has no ears to listen, no heart to understand. It cannot bring you comfort or reach out a helping hand. So when you ask God for a gift, be thankful if sends not diamonds, pearls, or riches but the love of real, true friends."- Muhammad Ali on friendship.

We continue the subject we talk about frequently, which is emotional currency and the ability to pick how we choose to spend this. How much do we want to invest? Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in an emotion that we forget that we're investing in all this life-sucking stuff. But when we do, and we say "zero," it's FABULOUS because we feel free, because we are free. We're energized.  the fact that when we spend emotional currency like this, not only does it leave room for beauty in our lives, but in that moment and that realization of," I passed through it and that's kind of saying it's over. I refuse to invest anymore,"our life force comes back because we've gathered ourselves. The different parts of ourselves that were scattered in different directions outside of ourselves because we leaked our vital life force are now restored. We have pulled ourselves back together. Now we have the capacity that is able to make good friends and to BE a good friend.  #GetYourselfTogether #HowToB…

I have an objection! I mean, they constantly say when people don't have friends when they're lonely, it's going to cause cancer. It's going to cause heart problems. It's like smoking 10 packs a day of cigarettes. It's like all they do is scare people. Thanks. Thanks for grabbing a headline and then dropping us off a cliff and saying, okay, bye-bye. I wish we had the audience the massive audience that all these “experts” have because instead of fear, we are actually creating a friendly world. In today's episode, we're talking about official or superficial friendships. How do you know if you actually have a friend, why do you depend on something else or somebody else to include you in a friend group, like these people that are parents who are like, oh, don't worry, you'll make friends when your kids make friends, like through their friends. That is so backward. It should be the other way around. . It should be your friends or your children looking at you as an example of how you treat …

Let's talk about rest. R e s t. We're always going, going, going! Doesn't the world to you seem like everything is speeding up faster and faster, and that time is going by incredibly fast, like a rollercoaster fast?Today's episode is on the value of rest and all the different types of rest we need to look at.There are 7 different ways of rest that our bodies need. And when we rest, we are better friends. We have a free gift for you. Go to https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/ and pick up a free copy of Fawn's “Ikigai of Friendship” companion book And to gift us, tell others about our podcast, and leave a kind review.

Everything is a gift, but it's not your responsibility to accept every gift that's given to you. Just because someone offers you something, does not mean you have to accept it.     The word "gift" has been around for a long, long time, and when you get into German and you break it down, it basically means to give or receive, or natural talent. But if you keep looking further into the etymology and other aspects of the gift, it's also meaning "poison". Let's look at the word poison: deadly potion or substance, also figuratively, spiritually corrupting ideas, evil intentions.     Be choosy and pick the loveliest gifts. That's with friendships, that's with everything in your life; what you surround yourself with. When do you know how to let go of the gift (the good gift)? When a gift has already served you, perhaps it's time to share that gift. That gift could be something like, you'll learn how to do something, so then you become someone's mentor. You're gifting them your experience and…

Someone you help out that you love, who also loves you may turn on you. We've all heard the term “hurt people hurt.” The people who have hurt in them, who've experienced some sort of abuse (emotional pain or even physical pain) tend to lash out. Not everybody does that, but it's kind of like having a wound and you have to let the puss or whatever is in there come out. We live in a world where we're all interconnected. So how do we handle that kind of outburst or conflict? How do we handle that when that's us or someone we see who's needing to vent or who's needing to clear all that stuff out? How can we get rid of all that stuff from the inside, release it, and how do we deal with it when we have to deal with other people in our community? The world is our community. What one person experiences, we all experience. How do we release this hurt safe way? In today's episode, we use the character Nate from the TV series Ted Lasso to explore who we pay attention to and how to create a lovin…

Friends In Real Life. We've spent so long sequestered where the relationships that we had had were primarily virtual. They were over the phone, they were on video chat, but they weren't tactile, they weren't "I'm right in front of you." So things like when I'm texting, I can curate. When I'm Facebook posting again, I can curate. I can choose to write out a paragraph and then delete it and then write something else. Right. So there's a filter there. And in real life, there is still that filter but it's trickier because somebody can see when you're thinking you should say one thing, but you say something else. There are micro gestures that will tell you everything if you are open to it. If you're present enough, you can pick up everything from a split-second movement that happens. We were sequestered even before the pandemic; as a society, we really didn't hang out together that much. Everybody has this magical number in their head that if they have one friend or seven friends or 21 fri…

Revealing authenticity is one of the major things that keep us from having true friendships and good relationships. This week, we explore the spiritual meaning of the Blue Jay and what it teaches us about being authentic.

What is Hypergrowth Mode in Friendship? What happens if someone's not growing and you've grown or you are not growing and the other person has grown; if you have an open mind about it, you can still connect and be together. But that's where you can't be so locked into certain belief systems. So if, let's say you've grown so much and you come back. . I'm like, what happened? And you tell me your experience, then if I'm totally open to also acquiring that growth at that precise moment because of your growth, if I'm totally openhearted about it, I think that that's what keeps a true friendship going. Have you noticed it's gotten easier or harder as time goes by to actually keep in touch with these people who are on either side of it? In this episode, we discuss what happens when people you know who are going through hypergrowth, or if you're going through hypergrowth, these people who are not, can lead to a breakup; which may lead us back to another topic from last week (we did talk abou…

Matt explores the findings of Leon Festinger who was trying to figure out how people like to arrange themselves into groups, peer groups, social groups, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so he started really trying to get an understanding of what that means. It's hard to measure yourself against other people in your peer group because peer groups are now infinitely huge and you make certain assumptions about who is and isn't in your peer group. People used to watch the Kardashians. How in the world can we relate to these people even though we live vastly different lives? What are the consequences of comparing ourselves to others? George Bush buys socks from Walmart and that look at how he's one of us makes him relatable. It was such an opportunistic, and it depends on which side of the political spectrum you live on, and how you react to that. But that was publicity. It was great publicity. Exactly. But that makes him relatable. And so what we're seeing in this day and …

Today, we discuss a key perspective needed to recover from the betrayal of a very, very bad friend. Beyond devastation, beyond the level of betrayal, we can and will find our way back to our perfect selves. https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/

We can think of each person and ourselves as a different kind of element (earth, fire, water, air, and space), and explore how these elements work together. Some elements love each other; they support and nurture each other while some elements like fire and water are enemies; destroy each other and they need to remain separate. What does all this mean in accordance with our relationships? How can we coexist? What is the right balance to have (because we all have each and all of the elements within us) in order to have a beautiful friendship? Keep in mind that IMBALANCE is necessary also. If you think about walking, you couldn't walk if you were not imbalanced. If you were always balanced, you would not be able to walk because you would be so centered the whole time. The fact that you have to take one step and put all your weight onto another leg. To go to that next step is a free fall if you think about it. And it requires imbalance. You have to have faith that you are going to trans…

We're talking about telling it like it is, not being worried about looking ugly, and not allowing ourselves to get so offended. Everyone goes through moments where they get offended in a friendship. But have you noticed that in our current culture, as soon as someone gets offended, it's the end of the friendship?Relationships have become disposable because it's so easy to just avoid a person or a certain problem forever, and never want to talk about it again. This takes us back to the saying “How you start something is how you end”. We can't end on a bad note and think that we can go into this other thing and start all over, with a clean slate. The same issues will inevitably come up again. So if we get offended by someone and we end that relationship because we never want to talk to this person again, whatever issue was a charge is going to happen again. That same issue in some other form is going to come up again. Further discussion leads us to explore when being polite at all cost…