How I'm Nurturing a Life Offline

As you may know, I'm in a year where I'm doing my best to move slowly and with more intention. One of the big ways I'm doing that is by reclaiming my time from the online space. I've pulled back from social media big time. 

In doing that, I've found that I have a LOT more time on my hands that I don't necessarily need to fill it with work for mental health and general sanity reasons. It also turns out that I can only read so many books. So here I am in 2026 with ample leisure time and not really anything to do with it. 

What I perhaps didn't share at the beginning of the year is that in addition to staying out of stupid conflicts, the other reason I ditched social media is that I wanted to emphasize building life and relationships offline. I've seen a few folks talk about this, but the general idea is that I don't think I ever really bounced back to a full level of doing in real life post-covid shutdown times. 

I wasn't "out out" before that. But I did regularly meet friends for dinner or go over to someone's house for a chill afternoon hang out and conversation and snacks. Ever since I moved, I haven't quite found that kind of community. So this year I'm getting offline to do more in real life. 

Here's what that looks like. 

My Life in Color

This year I set a goal for myself to do two in real life events per month: one related to business or community organizing and another purely for fun. Here's what that's looked like so far. 

One business and/or community networking event per month

Sometimes this looks like me attending a conference, but it's also been about me showing up to community organizing events to see how I can help move causes forward that matter to me. There's a lot of uncertainty about the times that we live in, but one thing that's clear to me is that we have to get out and meet people doing the things we care about most and join them in doing those things. 

In March, I went to an info session about worker-owned cooperatives and loved it so much that I signed up for a full day workshop on how to set up your worker-owned cooperative in April. That workshop was this past weekend and it was a blast! There were a ton of interesting people there from all sorts of backgrounds (languages, cultures, sexuality, gender, careers, etc.) and we all had a common goal of organizing workplaces that actually seek to take care of the worker. I learned a ton about both cooperatives and also just some basics of business that I made notes of. I also met some really great people who I'm excited to connect with further. 

One purely fun/hobby social event per month

I can get overly obsessed with networking for work so this year I'm making a point to go to something fun that's just for me every month. Sometimes it's something that pushes me out of my comfort zone and other times it's something that I just freaking love. I've gone to some book events and attended some album listening parties. I'm working up the courage to get to a ballet class and maybe an acting class and I'm slated to go to a book club gathering at the end of the month. 

There are events constantly, and I've found that having the Eventbrite and Posh apps on my phone is great because I can follow certain hosts and be alerted when they set things up and sign up for them. My favorite event of the year, Pages in the Park, is returning next month for spring and summer and I'm so excited to see everyone again! The event is exactly what you think it is: book lovers meeting in the park to read, drink wine, eat snacks, and do a book exchange with chill music playing in the background. It's my summertime happy place (well, besides the beach!). 

Other Life in Color Efforts

In addition, to making sure I get the two main community building events on my calendar every month, I've also changed up how I work. There is a nonprofit that I'm on the advisory board of that I love. They have a co-working space so I asked them to do a work-trade where I get full membership benefits in exchange for holding monthly legal office hours there. 

This deal has been a gamechanger for me. I absolutely adore the space and the members and it's a great way to get out of the house, get work done, and meet new people. 

The other thing I've done is have a standing weekly date with one or two of my friends where we get together for lunch, late afternoon co-working, and/or happy hour to sit around and chat and gab. 

All of these things are helping me get back into the habit of relationship building, which, like I said, is a skill that I know I lost to some extent during the shutdown and never got back. 

As we continue to figure out what it means to survive in these times, I think it's easy to feel isolated and succumb to loneliness because that's how they want us to feel. In my opinion, that means we have to intentionally make time to build relationships and community for ourselves, especially those of us that tend to skew more introverted. 

Because in a world where oppression thrives on our isolation, community and relationship building is a critical form of defiance. 

Are you proactively building community and relationships this year? If so, how are you going about it? Let me know in the comments.