To create true prosperity—aliveness—I focus on feeling, fun and neighbors. Here’s why:

Simply put…

1. Aliveness is a feeling so we must necessarily tune into how we feel, and want to feel, to experience it.
2. “The opposite of play [having fun] is not work, it’s depression,” says play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith.
3. Wonderful places to grow up and grow old start with us co-creating with the people next door.

BUT WAIT, there’s more! But first, be aware that I interchange “having fun” and “play.” What I mean by both is that feeling we get when doing something we enjoy and that makes time fly.

Having fun—playing—is the healthiest way we can spend our time.*

*After feeding and housing ourselves, says the National Institute for Play. They also report that free play in children develops the sense of self, as well as motor, emotional, social and cognitive skills. Or, …

Kids who play more achieve more.

And Plato said that we “can discover more about a person from an hour of play than in a year of conversation,” which means to me that…

Big kids (adults) who have more fun discover more about creating social connection and trust, which are essential for our prosperity, or feeling alive.

Feeling is the secret and language of the soul, which lets us know whether we’re on or off track.

The better we feel, the better we can access soul intelligence—like curiosity, excitement, inspiration, vision, intuition and/or inner knowing—that can lead us toward lives of our dreams if we follow it.

As for neighbors, …

In addition to being essential for co-creating wonderful places to live, proximity makes neighbors potentially the best first responders. Neighbors can also help us evolve our way to work we love.

And get this from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration:

“As a force in shaping our health, medical care pales in comparison with the circumstances of the communities in which we live. Few aspects of community are more powerful than is the degree of connectedness and support for individuals.” Said differently, …

In terms of shaping health—versus treating illness—caring neighbors matter more than doctors.

And caring neighbors matter most when it comes to building solutions to meet spiraling home care—and fun care!—demands stemming from America getting sicker and lonelier while trending older.

We’ve gone too far with rugged individualism. It’s time for more neighbor-powered villages.

By “neighbor” I mostly mean people who live nearby. But it also means someone who shows kindliness or helpfulness toward others, so a neighbor can refer to a blood relative or cashier at a local store.

And I call nature our most life-giving neighbor.