Connection 1st

Jon Young has spent over four decades distilling the practices that help us create a supportive and regenerative social environment. These practices activate our brain and nervous system for deep connection, and teach us to embrace and empower the best in ourselves and others. For over 40 years of dedicated field work and research, in collaboration with countless mentors and elders from around the world, Jon produced a map of 64 simple and highly effective practices that create this space. 

These universal and archetypal cultural elements are practiced by traditional cultures across the globe. Each cultural element is—or historically was—widely practiced on almost all continents. These videos aren’t teaching culturally specific traditions, instead they are lifting up principles that apply universally. We are laying a framework, a universal map of the types of tools that create healthy, thriving and connected culture.

My life’s work is connecting people deeply to nature, each other and themselves. Through over 40 years of mentoring, I’ve seen that deep nature connection changes us on a profound level. Deep connection rewires our nervous system and boosts our wellbeing and potential. 

-  Jon Young

Childlike happiness, vitality, unconditional listening and being truly heard, empathy, authentic helpfulness, gratitude for life, compassion and forgiveness, inner peace,  tranquility and creativity—we feel and embody these attributes when we are at our best. We strive to experience these qualities in our own lives and we want them for the people we love.

We all have moments when others help us embody these characteristics and we help others do the same. We all have a deep desire and knowing to bring out the best in those around us and ourselves. This longing points to our connective potential, often lying dormant and waiting to be activated, given the right conditions and environment.

Our intention with The 512 Project is to offer you an inspiring and effective template to create these conditions for family, community and yourself. The stories Jon tells hold the keys to unlock doors within us–to remember what we already have inside that can enhance relationships with ourselves, one another and the world around us.