Join us with Stoptober and the week of the loneliness!
- The Cohesion
- Sep 29, 2021
- 2 min read
October. The month of Halloween, Autumn, Oktoberfest, but also Stoptober and the week of the loneliness! This upcoming month, these two events will be highlighted in our community. During these events, we work on the community building of the Cohesion, the health of our tenants, and the cohesion with the neighbourhood. Curious about what we do during these events? Check out this blog!
STOPTOBER
Stoptober is a challenge from October 1st until the 28th, where smokers are being challenged to quit smoking. The strength of Stoptober is the positive approach and mutual support. The community of The Cohesion will support each other as it will be a difficult month. After the 28 days, we will come together, share our experiences and celebrate that you kept on going and are enjoying a healthier life from now on.
Wanna join? Download the Stoptober app and send us an e-mail with your user name and ‘Stoptober’ in the description to living@rockfield.nl. We will add you to the group and make sure we will inform you of all the tips and tricks!
Download the app in the Apple play store
Download the app in the Android play store
Week of the loneliness
From September 30th until October 7th is the week of loneliness. During the week against loneliness, meeting and connecting are central. Throughout the Netherlands, many people organize events to bring some happiness to everyone who is at home! As we understand the difficult times due to Corona even more people can experience loneliness. This is very important for us and we as The Cohesion and co-living as our focus, will participate as well and we do need your help!
How do you like cake? Cause we love it!
To bring some happiness to our neighbourhood, we would like to share our love for cake with you by bringing some cakes around and enjoy a nice chat with them! Sign up via Eventbrite and join this event!
Curious how the tenants experience these events? Keep an eye on our next blog!
The Cohesion coliving - Social, Ambition, Health & Sustainable
I’ve seen “week against loneliness” initiatives flop when they’re too scheduled and people feel like they’re intruding — the low-stakes “drop by for 10 minutes” format tends to work better. Also, tying it to Corona’s after-effects is very real; even social people got out of the habit of casual connection. Funny enough, that “small tweak, big confidence boost” idea is similar to what StyleLookLab talks about in a totally different context, but the psychology is kind of the same.
It’s interesting you’re treating “health of tenants” and “cohesion with the neighbourhood” as part of the same plan — that’s usually where these community posts feel more real. I wonder if you’ll do any simple visual prompts/posters in shared spaces for the loneliness week (like anonymous “come say hi” notes), since not everyone will download an app. Random association: the idea of lowering the barrier to participation is kind of like what imgg does for making visuals without needing design skills.
The “positive approach” angle is what makes these challenges doable; shame-based messaging just makes people hide it. For the loneliness week, are you also planning any events that don’t revolve around drinking/late nights (like a casual coffee walk or daytime board games)? Side note: the way you’re collecting sign-ups and organizing groups feels similar to how directories like hrefgo keep submissions tidy, but here it’s actually about humans showing up for each other.
I’m glad you’re pairing the quit-smoking push with the loneliness week, because the social part is usually what derails people (boredom + isolation is a rough combo). When you mention tips and “tricks,” are you planning to include simple distraction ideas or journaling prompts? That kind of structured routine always helps me — a bit like using this site to sanity-check a step-by-step process when my brain is scattered.
The Week of Loneliness timing (right as autumn kicks in) makes a lot of sense — that’s when staying in starts feeling “normal” again. Small, low-pressure meetups seem like they’d work better than big events; it’s a bit like easing into a puzzle instead of going straight for high score mode, which I weirdly associate with https://blockblast.co when I’m trying to reset my brain. Would love to see examples of tiny activities people can join without feeling awkward.