Why Community Might Be the Most Overlooked Wellness Practice

Community: the missing piece in modern wellness.

I don't know if you've noticed but somewhere along the way, “wellness” started sounding a lot like “self-optimisation.” So many trends treat us as if we’re devices that constantly need upgrading: fine-tuning our macros, tracking our sleep cycles, optimising our routines like we’re a piece of tech rather than a human being, forever chasing the “best version of us", much like hamsters on a wheel.

And look: taking care of our bodies absolutely matters. What we eat, how we move, how we rest… all essential. But there’s something even more crucial that often gets left out of the conversation:

We are not designed to do life alone.

The world is becoming more isolated, and we feel it. We’ve never been more “connected,” yet somehow less supported. Less part of something.

And while many wellness trends promise transformation through discipline and individual effort, the longest-living communities on Earth — the Blue Zones — suggest something different: longevity is communal.

People in these regions live longer for many reasons, and yes, movement and food are part of them. But their longevity is also deeply tied to supportive, meaningful social networks embedded in daily life, where each person’s existence is interwoven with others’.

The impact of community on longevity is also supported by science. A major review from Harvard found that strong social relationships make you about 50% more likely to live longer than those with weak social ties — a greater impact than many traditional health markers. The study also emphasised that social connection improves mental health, cardiovascular health, immune function — the whole ecosystem of our wellbeing.

The WHO has also highlighted that social disconnection significantly increases the risk of early death, with an impact comparable to smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.

Community is, in other words, a biological necessity.

So, what do people in Blue Zones do differently — and what can we learn from them?

Because connection is woven into their cultures, it’s not about deliberate or performative acts. It’s about the small, almost invisible moments: sharing meals, asking a neighbour for help, looking after a child, or carrying a small — literal or figurative — load together. People form circles of friends they keep for decades. They visit each other without scheduling weeks in advance. They show up for coffee, to catch up and share news, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Because for them, it is.

So how do we bring these lessons into our own lives, where cultural norms don’t necessarily work that way?

Right now is a powerful opportunity to strengthen our communal bonds — to honour existing ones or give attention to new ones.

We can start small: sharing more meals, spending time with people who uplift us, checking in with someone outside our immediate circle whom we genuinely appreciate. We can set realistic intentions, like monthly get-togethers, or simply text someone we haven’t spoken to in years but would really love to hear from.

We can also practise asking for help when we’re stuck — which, for many of us, can feel deeply uncomfortable — or offer support to someone who might need it but feels afraid to ask.

This isn’t about exhausting ourselves by adding more expectations to an already full life. It’s an invitation to support and be supported. A reminder that if we slow down enough to notice, we may find we are less alone than we think.

And in a world that’s increasingly disconnected, choosing to live in community — even in small, imperfect, everyday ways — might be the most radical act of self-care we have left.