How to Flourish: Social Connection & Belonging

In the third salon of a nine-part series on human flourishing,  join host Ashley Zhang to explore how we can nurture meaningful relationships that enrich and ennoble our lives.

 “Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself.” — C.S. Lewis

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” — Leo Tolstoy

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If we are the product of who we surround ourselves with, then our friends and family are the people who shape us most. This is not just anecdotal: the world’s longest study of well-being conducted by Harvard University found that close relationships, more than any other factor, are a crucial determinant of people’s health and happiness.

And while we cannot choose our family, we can choose our friends. How do we find people we feel closely connected to and love them well? How do we cultivate a sense of belonging? How do we combat loneliness, both on a personal level and on a societal scale?

Come explore these questions and many more in this salon — and, perhaps, make new friends in the process.

Reading List:

• What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life – The Atlantic
• Loneliness and Social Connections – Our World in Data
• Friendship | Lapham’s Quarterly
• Family | Lapham’s Quarterly