All this year, Michigan Radio has been asking people from across the state what three things they think we can all do to improve Michigan. Today Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley speaks with Shirley Showalter, Vice President Programs at the Fetzer Institute.

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Shelley’s first idea is to create more compassionate communities, and she has worked in her own life to build those communities through parties, contacts, and Facebook connections. “It’s been a community that consciously chose to be connected. I think it would be so rich in the State of Michigan if everyone could know their neighbors, communicate with their neighbors, support their neighbors, and develop a collective form of wisdom that would be the base for any other kind of accomplishment or achievement the state may be able to do.”

She explains that this is important for the state because “people who are connected to other people have a reason to offer their talent, their time, their thought to how to work collectively, and in a time of stress, that is what is needed.”

Her second idea is to simply take a walk.

“Not enough people do it. Obviously, we improve our health when we get outdoors. There are practical things you can do on your walk, like pick up litter, and cans…help our communities become more beautiful by taking walks.”

Her third idea is to write your life story.

She wants Michiganders to reflect on their own lives. She believes this would help the state because “more conscious people, actually thinking mindfully about what they can contribute to the world, who they are, how they’re made, how they’re different from other people and yet connected to all other people…unless we spend some time really thinking about our life story we don’t really know why we’re here. If we’re going to work together to do anything, we need to first begin with our own destiny.

She believes that love is a foundation for people, an anchor that secures them and gives them the strength to act. She quotes Sigmund Freud, “‘How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.’” She continues, “We have in our life stories some record of being loved. When we locate that and can really understand it we’ve created a new narrative for ourselves that help other people understand us and help us act boldly in the world.”