Introducing Soulbound

5 June, 2024

Over the last year I’ve been working on a project with my colleague and friend, Casper Jorna, on a personal project that has led us on a journey that has been educational, enlightening, and deeply gratifying. We’ve navigated and learned about prevailing theories in mindfulness, loneliness, anxiety, performance, gratitude, and happiness and looked at clinical and popular tools available.

An oversimplified conclusion we came to was this: many of us don’t feel noticed, heard, included, understood, or loved… enough. The closest term to describe this feeling is loneliness. It doesn’t have to mean our tanks are empty, just that sometimes they’re running a little low.

According to the most recent statistics, more than 2/3 of people in the US feel lonely, at least some of the time. To put this in perspective, if you work with 9 people, 6 of them are likely suffering, to some degree, with loneliness. If you have 6 people in your family, four of them feel lonely sometimes. To state the obvious, there’s a 67% chance that you suffer from loneliness sometimes. I do.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, but attention is gaining momentum. In 2018 the UK created a “ministry of loneliness”, followed by Japan in 2021. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared loneliness a global health priority, noting that loneliness contributes to absenteeism, and is strongly linked to poor mental health and increases the risk of anxiety, depression and suicide. It increases chances of stroke by 30%, increases cognitive decline, and is associated with a 50% increase in dementia. And it affects people of all age, including children and adolescence.

There’s lots to blame. Cell phones, social media, hectic schedules, remote work, amazon home delivery, world news, and an increasingly complicated and divisive social / political environment. But there’s a deep chasm between knowing why you feel something and feeling better.

As we continued on this journey, we started looking at the tools we are using to combat the effects of loneliness. The most prominent tools include seeking help from a therapist, practicing mindfulness, journalling, exercise, coping mechanisms, dietary adjustments, and self-help wellness retreats. What most of these have in common is “self-work” - an independent journey of discovery and repair. And while I’m not saying people can’t benefit from some or all of these activities, it seems odd to combat loneliness… alone.

Framed another way, imagine zooming way out and picturing millions of people all working on their individual small plots of land, tending little gardens (to varying levels of success). From this perspective, it would seem obvious that maybe people should work together, tend to shared gardens, build shared spaces…

Our discovery was this: Maybe one of the roads to combat loneliness - to greater mental health, more confidence, better physical health, and happiness - doesn’t lie within us, but between and among us.

Discovering soulfulness.

Soulfulness is the feeling of deep connection with others and our environment.

It’s that feeling of being “at one” with nature; connected to a spiritual or divine power; deeply ingrained in an association, club, or movement; part of a team that seems invincible. It feels like the opposite of loneliness.

As we continued our journey, we began searching for the components of soulfulness - what are the foundations, building blocks, or ingredients that help soulfulness emerge?

We discovered there are three fundamental components to soulfulness:

1. Curiosity: Being more aware of our surroundings and situations, and using a non-judgemental lens to “see”, we can gain greater connection to our environment and the people in it. Trees look more “treeish”, there’s more flow to daily activity, and people are much more complex, and nuanced. When we start asking questions instead of making assumptions, a larger colour pallet emerges.

2. Kindness: Everyone — ourselves included — are more likely to feel accepted, understood, seen, and belonging, when we anticipate being met with kindness instead of judgement or ridicule.

3. Belief: It is hard to feel connected to, proud of, valued, satisfied from, or committed to something we don’t truly believe in. That’s true in relationships, sports, work, and life.

Soulbound is born.

Along the journey we’ve searched for ways to bring more soulfulness into people’s lives. We created a company and discovered Jake Houbiers, who has helped us find a brand and design language:

In collaboration with many talented professionals, psychologists, sports therapists, and medical professionals (including Dr. Theresa Holst, and Dr. Susanne Wolf), we developed a prototype for a group journalling app (We are Legend) and a board game for business teams, sports teams, families, and friends called How’s the Water? (with help from the amazingly talented Phil Streets). We’re also working on a book, and fancy swag.

The products are in various stages of development as we collect feedback from “teams” of all kinds, and we’re excited to see them coming to life!

The Journey From Here

Onward we go…