What does ‘Community’ mean to you?

Jen Lang: 00:00:08

This is no halos here hosted by Jen Lang and Jane Stark, the place to inspire a change in your consciousness to elevate the world. We're to heart centered business owners nourishing our inner rebels while growing our respective businesses.

Jane Stark: 00:00:21

No halos here is the result of bringing together an opera singer turn spiritual mentor and a marketing professional turned well being coached to meditate daily. Together, we unite physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies into a powerful presence to lead, heal and inspire. We love exploring the shadowed edges of life, the universe and beyond through honest and thought provoking conversations. Let's dive in.

Jen Lang: 00:00:47

Hi, everybody, welcome back to another episode of no halos here. This is Jen Ling and Jen Stark, and we are back in your ear pods. Earbuds. I don't know what else. What do you call them? Whatever. We're back in your ears in some form or another? Yeah, we had we actually have a really super juicy episode.

Jane Stark: 00:01:07

It's gonna be short. Yes. Simple and totally to the point.

Jen Lang: 00:01:11

Yeah, exactly. It's all around community. And Jane and I were sort of riffing on this topic. And this theme, and last week, we had our first Community call for the, our list and our for our the community that we're building based on the identity of our community. That's right, thank you. And it's for people who had signed up for the we are Jen and Jane playbook, which is still available, I can find the link in the show notes. And we sort of talking about, you know, what, what does community mean to each of us? So I'm gonna hand it over to you, Jane. And why don't you riff on that first?

Jane Stark: 00:01:48

Sure. So yeah, I mean, what does community mean, to me, I think it's a sense of a place of, but it means belonging. So it's finding the place where I feel that belonging where I might connect with others, where there's no judgement. It's, it's like encircle, right? And. And I mean, it's into it, like, I'm struggling to unpack it here, my brains going a mile a minute, just reflecting on, because the term community is thrown around a lot, right? We're all it's all about community. And I think at the root of it, for me, it's about belonging. And a place where I can show up and be myself and receive support from others and give support like that giving, it's more of an equal playing field, I guess I'm thinking too, and I might be thinking of it in the context of, we were talking briefly, just before this, about how, you know, there's a lot of various different programs out there now, and a lot of opportunities to kind of come together in group settings with others, whether it's group coaching programs, group therapy programs, you know, oh, a number of different things like that. And there's usually sort of a structure and a purpose or a teaching, or you're showing up to be coached, you're showing up to learn something. And that's all valuable. But I think what we kind of have come to with our community. And what this is right now, is really distilling it down to just that sense of like, there's no, you're going to get stuff you're going to have takeaways, I'm you know, guarantee that when we come together, we learn from each other. But it's not so much of a, you know, Jen and I are here as coaches to coach you. It's about holding space, and allowing people to just bring what's there at that moment, and, and in supportive environment to work through it. That felt a bit rambley. But just kind of like coming out here. And that's kind of what it felt like when we hosted that last week, and where we went with it, right, like we you've gone back and forth. As Jen mentioned, we've recently launched our empowerment playbook, which is a beautiful workbook to help support you in some guided reflection, and going deeper and connecting into the body. And we had debated whether these calls should be more taut, closely tied to the impairment playbook. And like, let's work through that. And there's value in that and we will, I think we've decided we might be doing some pop up sessions, where we will actually do that because sometimes half the battle is just carving out the time to do the reflective work. But these community calls, we felt a calling to make them a little less structured and a little more open. And what if we just held space for people to show up and come and felt into the group? Right? So I think that kind of chunked into

Jen Lang: 00:04:56

Yeah, I think that really might not be right it. I think it totally worked last week when we hosted that first community call. And we've specifically called it a community call, because it's it's what it is. So we come together, we meet each other where we're at. And it's not specifically for the empowerment playbook. We thought at first it would be. And when we first envisioned this, we're like, Nope, it's a week, it's a call once a month through work through empowerment playbook. And then lately, with everything that's unfolding, we thought, well, you know, what, what's the purpose, you know, we want to connect here, we want people to be able to feel like they can connect more fully with each other, and not just within themselves, the empowerment playbooks there for you to connect more deeply with yourself. Good differentiation. Yes. And the community calls more about connecting with each other. So it's a fascinating exercise because of the Yeah, took some warming up. And of course, if you as a listener want to show up to these calls, you know, it's so funny, because there's like, why do I say and do I jump in? And I used to be one of the hangers back and now. Yep. Now we both jumped out. And Jane, you know, like on that first question, that first reflective question we asked Jane jumped in right away. And then when someone else jumps in, it's like, it gives someone other another person that permission. Yeah, yeah.

Jane Stark: 00:06:19

So it started to flow, right. It's that comfort, and just that space. And what was really interesting to me was, most of the women that showed up there said they were there because they were seeking community and connection. Yeah. And that was like it at its simplest form, which is kind of acted like you say we call it the community call intentionally. So that people know exactly what it is. And it's, it's what we're hearing people are looking for, it's what we're looking for. I mean, let's be honest, right? Are we creating this as much for ourselves as for everyone else, probably.

Jen Lang: 00:06:55

Yeah. And it's so these are kind of our reflections on community, as well. So I asked you sort of what community meant to you. And I would say, for me, in response, we all have different communities that serve different purposes. So, you know, when I was practicing karate more frequently, that was a community activity that served a specific purpose, it was not only physical activity, but it was also, you know, saying hi, and hanging out with my fellow karate calm before and after the class. And, you know, some of the people I've known more than 20 years, because we've practiced together. And so we we know, each, it's funny, we know each other in the dojo, we have that sense of community in the dojo, we don't always, you know, there, there used to be a once a year of beach training, where we would actually just go hang out, we would do a bunch of beach training, and then one of their karate senses, had a house near the beach with a hot tub. So we would all go back to their place, we'd have, you know, barbecue and salads and family members would come. And that was a beautiful sense of community where you could get to know each other outside of the dojo more fully. And that sense of community, having that more fully rounded sense of community creates stronger ties and bonds within the dojo. Yeah, so we always look at those, like, that's that purpose of that

Jane Stark: 00:08:21

community. And I guess that's the belonging I'm talking about, right? Definitely. You're right. I like how you framed that in, we can get that in different areas. So that's a sense of belonging within that community for you.

Jen Lang: 00:08:35

And then there's other communities where we might meet once a month, or once or twice a month, depending on it, and it's a program I've bought into, or it could be a course. And, you know, to be honest, I don't really watch the recordings. It's more about showing up live, and being in the energy of the moment and being able to respond in the moment. That creates a stronger sense of community within each of those containers. So community serves different purposes. But I guess, for the listener, we would ask you, what purpose is community serve in your life? And are you getting enough of it? Because for so long, we've bought this idea that we have to do it all ourselves, and that we are the solo container. And there's the whole solopreneur thing. And then there's or you might be in a, you know, in a workplace or you head of your department or you might be the only person in your department in the workplace. But it's, you know, you've to do it all yourself and, or your single parent or your single parent, you know, and it's, you know,

Jane Stark: 00:09:48

exhausting, don't we need, I would love to get this sense of community and like it takes a village is so you know, we say it. You hear it all the time. It feels almost cliche, and yet when We really stop. And look, it's like, we're not, we're saying these things, but we're not always acting on it. I mean, I got as much out of that call last week as I hope the women who showed up to it because just in hearing everybody's different perspectives to, I got information, it made me think in certain different ways, or sometimes we call it codes like, oh, that gave me a code or a hint to that. And oh, yeah, that, you know, oh, listening to how they process that helped me. So, you know, there's, that's the other benefit of just showing up in community and allowing what needs to unfold to unfold? Yeah, you don't even need to know what

Jen Lang: 00:10:42

I also think there's an aspect of being present in that community, where you're not in that community, while you know, checking your email or while doing this, or XY, or Zed, and when you're present with your community, or whatever it is, whenever you show up when you're present, and you're not multitasking or distracted. There's power in that presence. And there's power in that present moment.

Jane Stark: 00:11:09

And that's a part of the reason why we made the conscious decision not to record the yes, they're very it we really wanted to create that sacred space that can safe container. So the calls are not recorded it this isn't a teaching or a coaching thing where Oh, well, you can go back and watch it after because to what you're just saying, right? The idea is that you carve out that our show up and be present and see what we get. And and we can have more vulnerability when we're recording something. So it's very intentionally designed that way. As Jen said, we're hosting these once a month, are December one is the 15th. Yes, it's the fifth December 15. If you're interested in joining us get on our newsletter, all the details, go out through our newsletter, and you can find the links to that in our show notes as well as through our social media. And I think, you know, there isn't a lot of structure. But I like as we were talking just before we got on here, Jen about the idea of how to have a calm holiday season, and how to bring more calm into our lives around a time that is typically more chaotic. And we're kind of living in chaotic times right now. So that, you know, we might bring themes like that as a monthly call, like I could see that being the theme, for December's call. So we can explore topics and themes. But we're not necessarily structuring it in a way where the call is going to be run in the same way every week, or we're working through the playbook or things like that. We really want to allow for that, that flow and for that ability to show up and see where that that takes us that time takes us. Yeah, thank you.

Jen Lang: 00:12:57

So if this sounds like something you'd like to dip your toe into, we definitely invite you to download the empowerment playbook. The show link is in our show notes. So the link is in our show notes. And the community call is free for a limited time. And it's free for now. They don't know when that might change. And when you download the empowerment playbook you get to attend the community call. So join us you're there. We'll see you there. And otherwise we'll be in your ears again next week with another fantastic episode of no halos here. Have an awesome rest of your day evening wherever you are in the world. Bye for now. Thanks for joining us for these conscious combos. If you're ready to dive deeper head on over to we are Jen and jane.com to continue the conversation.