Assumed audience: people who love/are interested in connecting with others and nurturing relationships.
Intro
I love connecting with people; when I do, I like to step into the connection we share. I imagine this as a magic circle that we've drawn around each other. In it, this world of our own making, there's psychological safety and the capacity to explore Us.
Something that I believe helps us step into magic circles of connection is using ingreets.
What's an ingreet?
I've coined the term ingreet: a portmanteau of in-group and greet. If a greeting acknowledges the presence of others, an ingreet does this and acknowledges the shared connection.
Example: Stuart Little 2 (film)
And for those that can't watch:
Mrs. Little (off screen): Hi, we're home! Sorry we're late!
Stuart: Little hi, Little low!
Mrs. Little (off screen): Little hey, Little ho!
Margalo: What the heck was that?
Stuart: Oh, that's just how we...greet each other.
In the Stuart Little films, this ingreet is used by all members of the Little family. Stuart becomes a member of the family in the first film.
Example: Deep Rock Galactic (videogame)
And for those that can't watch:
POV dwarf: I'm glad we have someone to carry our rocks and stones.
Other dwarf (off screen): Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
POV dwarf: Yeaahhh! Rock and Stone!
In the game Deep Rock Galactic, players play as dwarf miners employed by Deep Rock Galactic to extract resources on a hostile planet. Players can press the salute button to shout "Rock and Stone!" or some variant of this phrase.
For a bit more context on this ingreet, here's this quote from the game director, Mikkel Martin Pedersen:
When you raise your pickaxe and shout, you show that you are a friend, a colleague, a team player and that you are ready to die for your fellow dwarves. With “Rock and Stone” you celebrate teamplay and the codex: Leave No Dwarf Behind.
Just about presence and connection
The only criterion for an ingreet is the acknowledgement of the presence of others and the shared connection.
So there are no rules about format or structure. An ingreet could be a routine of singing and dancing; it could be a specific silence; it could be a word that you and others made up; it could be a secret handshake.
I want to stress that the focus is on presence and connection, not exclusion. You may have as many ingreets as you'd like, with as many people as you'd like. Two ingreets could connect five of you; five ingreets could connect two of you.
Lastly, if you want to make an ingreet with people you connect with, then talk to them! Find something that connects you all, and then come up with something that calls upon that connection 😁