Overcome Loneliness and Isolation in Cohousing: How cohousers reinvent "Superman's American Way"

by Alan O'Hashi

“Overcome Loneliness and Isolation in Cohousing” is about how I overcame loneliness on my deathbed by being a part of an intentional community. It’s part memoir about my life of divergent experiences that converged when I joined the Silver Sage Village cohousing community in Boulder, Colorado.It’s part DIY personal growth manual about the importance of being part of a community. The tenets of cohousing intentionally provide ways to know your neighbors and why cohousing can make social change happen by bridging cultural and economic divides among individuals and the larger community.The book provides ways you and your community can use cultural competence techniques that encourage members to better understand one another and explores why I believe cohousing can evolve from a “social movement” into being a “social norm.” I’ll offer a paradigm shift about how cohousing can bridge socio-economic divides. The stories are about relations between and among individuals and the personal changes necessary to find commonality with strangers, all with different experiences and lifestyles.The story is written from my viewpoint as a cohousing community member, as opposed to a cohousing professional or a cohousing professional who lives in a community.SSV is one of 170 existing cohousing communities in the United States. If cohousing is such a great idea, why aren’t thousands of communities popping up in all corners of the country? After all, if 30,000 people reside in an existing cohousing community or the community formation phase. The only person I have any control over is myself. For me, personal change happens when keeping the amount of time between the past and the present as small as possible. My experiences aren’t that remarkable, but the intent is to encourage you to remember what happened in your personal history as you figure out the opportunities and challenges you’ll face when choosing to care and share in a cohousing community.

211 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2021