Community Guide to Wellbeing in Europe - 4 minibooks with honest, personal stories

During the past two years, people from all Europe and beyond have been sharing our experiences of wellbeing or lack of wellbeing in our families and communities. We are on a journey to help one another to find the right ways to navigate the changes that are happening in Europe.

How are we living in times of massive social, economic, political challenges? How are we creating opportunities for ourselves and where can we support one another better? In work, health, family, community life.

Our team at Edgeryders has compiled a draft Guide: a series of mini-books with the most interesting stories, the stories which have led to fruitful conversations between members.
As the research project POPREBEL of which these stories are part of, enters its last year, we expect the the complete versions to be released in 2022.

Read/Download the mini-books which are closest to you:

Book Draft_ Wellbeing in Europe (Eng).pdf (827.9 KB) -Stories from around Europe (in English)
Book draft_Wellbeing in Europe (Ser).pdf (537.8 KB) - Stories from Serbia (in Serbian)
Book draft_ Wellbeing in Europe (CZ).pdf (422.6 KB) - Stories from Czechia (in Czech)
Book draft_ Wellbeing in Europe (PL).pdf (131.1 KB) - Stories from Poland (in Polish)

You too can become a contributor in the complete version of the Guide to Wellbeing in Europe:

  1. Share your story
    or simply
  2. Leave a comment to this post (Reply button) with your thoughts about this Guide: What impressed you the most about a story you read? Why?
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Thank you so much to all of the stellar contributors:
@Emily @aleks.jaszczyk @Dragan_Jonic @Nathalia @wlayche @angelo @Ewa @Vladb @lylycarrillo @jasen_lakic :star_struck:

Note that this is not an official publication, it is a draft to circulate within the broader community to gather their reactions - we would be happy to incorporate updates to your stories, if your views have changed…

Is there anything about life in Europe today that you find rewarding, or on the contrary, oppressive when it comes to your personal wellbeing?
I personally struggle to stay optimistic and make plans for the future, but despite the pandemic and distrust of governments I was happy to read today two new stories from Poland where @Nord and @Slo-wik both say that they remain optimistic! How good to read you two!

P.S. If you wish to take the pulse of the community, discuss daily news and how you are feeling:

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Thank you Noemi!
I’ll go through this and let you know ASAP.

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Hey @noemi ,
I just downloaded the mini book in Serbian and noticed a spelling mistake on its cover (it should be “Dobrobit” instead of “dobronit”). Not sure if this is important since its a draft, and I havent read the whole introduction just yet, but maybe to check it before the final version. Just a suggestion :blush: Looks great, btw!

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Nicely done people. If it will be a pdf I suppose you will include images too?

The general worrying feeling has been that of repression and deep distrust of the government. Recent events amplified my already strong assumption that people we elect do not represent us.
That said, I am aware I cannot change much there so I am simply doing things I love and work relentlessly on increasing the possibility of my world view being more represented in future.

I am moving forward with everything and I am very optimistic about 2021 or future in general. Pandemic opened up new opportunities, some of which I already took advantage of and even bigger ones available this year…very exciting times for me :slight_smile:

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Thank you @marijana, well spotted, and we will make the changes,

Note that the recent stories from 2021 are not present in these booklets yet, but some will definitely be included in the final versions :slight_smile:

Such a healthy view. I am trying to get my mind onto this exact kind of thinking…
And honestly after last years’ discussions I was a little worried about you, I thought the hyper awareness of today’s global politics risks making you, or us who were talking, more pessimistic, cynical, or downright anti- everything. I see it more and more around me, that’s why. But I’m happy it’s not the case here!!

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Love the ethnographic style. I read the English version and found only a few links and typos to be fixed. Well done!

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Cool, thank you,
Well this is an acknowledgement to the wonderful people in this community!
Upcoming will also be a report by professional ethnographers with network analysis elements included, so those will be the real meaty reflections from our conversations… I myself am looking forward to that!

By the way each version for Download above has different stories and contributors, they’re not the same, they are compiled from the different fora in the platform.

Hehe yeah I come across often like that, but it’s quite the contrary if you spend some time with me…as you know probably :slight_smile:
Some people call me when they are down just to get a more positive look on things :smiley:
I wrote an excellent article on the subject (in my humble opinion haha).

I just believe it’s way more important to discuss problems which need to be solved, but if I was a pessimist I wouldn’t believe the change is possible, nor would I discuss many issues.
I had a small insight recently thanks to Tony Robbins. Realised people need inspirational stories as well so I decided to write about more positive things as well. I will call it Inspiring Sunday Stories :smiley: .

That discussion happened in a particularly frustrating period. I became aware of the extent to which people’s minds are clouded and in some cases it was quite disappointing. Now I am way better as I adjusted to the situation and have a much more resilient system in place. I value extremely freedom of choice and let’s say that now I have much more of that, so I am in balance :slight_smile:

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Hi @noemi, I also spotted some mistakes - will someone proofread all the texts in local languages before you finally publish the books?
Also, is there a deadline until when we can update our stories maybe? I might be interested in that :slight_smile:

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For those who don’t know what discussion we are talking about, you can find it hear, and brace yourselves, it’s tough! Making a note here: @nadia it would be great if we could include excerpts from the thread in the final edition of the booklet.

Cool, I didn’t know you have a pretty professional medium account! Thanks for linking, it’s going in my weekend reads… this Sunday looks optimistic already :-))

It would be before the last quarter of this year, so September or so.
By Update I mean posting an additional comment or story with the changes in your views, which will be incorporated. Don’t edit your existing story, it would be a shame to lose that snapshot of the times, and importantly, it is part of a growing body of research. That research will also be presented in a draft report - public of course - by our team of ethnographers. More about that in other announcements, and will keep you in the loop!

re: the mistakes - noted! So far we kept the original language of contributors, but good reminder that for a more compelling publication we need to do some editing! Well spotted, thank you <3

He he cool! The first sunday story is really good…totally worth spreading.

Well I don’t know how professional it is, but it’s a nice change from my usual activities.

Regarding that discussion from last year, well in the meantime we have more info on some things so I guess things are clearer now too.

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Yeah there must be mistakes in mine as well, didn’t go through it though.

I will try to post an update before September, will be an interesting one if I succeed in finishing just half of the things I set out to do :smiley:

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Ping @katia! Above are some of the most compelling stories from POPREBEL in 2019 and 2020 - they represent people’s individual experiences. Feel free to browse through - all of those authors can be contacted through this platform, in case you will have questions,