“The impact of lacking social connection on reducing a lifespan is equal to the risk of smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and it's greater than the risk associated with obesity, excess alcohol consumption, and lack of exercise.”

Murthy, Vivek H. Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. Harper Collins, 2020. p13

NOTE: Vivek Murthy is the 19th and 21st (current) Surgeon General of the United States.

PATHS community addresses a fundamental need of human beings to connect with others. Loneliness is a warning signal to satisfy a biological and social imperative for humans to be part of community. PATHS workshops are focused on developing participants' understanding of these essential connections. PATHS workshops develop skills and mindsets that allow participants to find more purpose and set boundaries within community and in so doing reduce stress and support mental health.

Dan Buettner has been studying Blue Zones (areas of the world where people live unusually long and happy lives) for over fifteen years. His studies have led him to conclude that what people in Blue Zones do to promote long and healthy lives is to:

• connect

• eat wisely

• have the right outlook on life (combining less stress with purpose)

• move a lot naturally (like walking, playing, biking etc.)

Most communities, cultures, and environments are not structured in ways that make this easy for us. This means that a person needs to be very intentional in order to be able to live in these ways.

PATHS workshops include physical activity and are focused on developing participants' understanding of connection and outlook. PATHS workshops develop skills for adapting mindsets to allow participants to find more purpose, build healthy lifestyles and set boundaries for less stress.

In education, we so often wonder how to build grit in ourselves, in our kids, and in our students. But we seldom slow down to realize that no one works hard without a burning passion for which to work hard.

For many of us, both in school and after, there are so many things that we seem to be "told" to do or think. There are curriculums of facts to master, there are never ending "dos", "don'ts", and "shoulds" that the community we live in decide for us. These are all very well-intentioned and most of these "dos", "don't", and "shoulds" are wise to follow. But as young adults, or even older adults, we need to be able to choose this wisdom for ourselves because when see it makes sense and reject elements that do not make sense to us. If we do not have this opportunity we end up feeling like we do not know ourselves and that we have no agency in our lives.

In addition to being a place to connect, PATHS workshops are designed to create a space for dreaming and discussing “the big questions” about the world and our place in it that are most important to us as human beings.

Angela Duckworth’s research leads her to believe that we need space and time to build realistic dreams as a foundation for grit.

The PATHS workshop structure is designed to create a virtuous cycle in which participants are exposed to new ways of thinking about themselves and the world, given a space to explore how they feel about these new ideas, and then given repeated opportunities to return to these concepts in different contexts over time. In this way, participants’ world views are expanded without being prescribed and they have unhurried opportunities to consider what is most important and passion-inducing for them.

For a long time now our culture has tended to think of learning only in terms of academics. For many people learning looks more like a person doing a worksheet than a person having a conversation or doing something with their hands. Even for people who have had the opportunity to "learn by doing" the focus is almost always exterior. What are we learning about how X works? The fact that we all live vivid and powerful experiences inside our own minds and with our own emotions is only just beginning to be addressed in educational environments and within our communities.

The PATHS curriculum offers participants powerful ways to work with their own minds and take control of their lives under challenging circumstances. The reality of the world is that it is not fair. Some people face far more obstacles and have far fewer opportunities than others. By realizing that the inequities of the world are not going to change in time to help any one of us we can stop waiting and start acting to make our own situations better. We can learn to be kind to ourselves as so many of us have been trained to become our own oppressor. We can learn to build the support networks we need because so many of us have people close to us who unwittingly tear us down. We can learn to set big goals, ones we care deeply about. We can learn to identify smaller steps to achieve these big goals and we can learn to be flexible because each step may not work out and may need to be adapted or swapped out. The PATHS curriculum builds these key life skills.

In the modern world, we find ourselves with desperately little time to reflect and process the meaning or lack of meaning in our lives either alone or face-to-face with a trusted friend. Psychologist Adam Alter, in his book IRRESISTIBLE: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business fo Keeping Us Hooked, helps us see how when we do have free time, huge corporate interests are using very sophisticated psychology to monetize our attention through a wide variety of technology platforms. This diverts our attention away from basic human needs like connection, reflection, and introspection. The implications of this are major. It means that many of us are left with almost no time to mentally process our relationships or make important strategic life decisions.

Alter, Adam. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. Penguin, 2017.

PATHS workshops are designed to be digital-free spaces that build community. Within the workshops, participants are able to reflect on who they are and what they want to do with their lives with the help of trusted friends. The PATHS curriculum gives participants opportunities to consider how technology is affecting their lives and how they might choose to develop strategies to allow them to use technology when it serves their needs rather than have the technology in the driver's seat.

Having time to reflect for yourself also creates a feeling within us that we have time in our lives to slow down and give time and attention to others. PATHS workshops build this practice in because participants listen to each other's challenges and develop questions to help process those challenges. They also give each other attention and support when they share their interests and passions.