This path started for me with the Dean Ornish book Love and Survival - The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy. Even people who smoked, drank alcohol a lot, and otherwise engaged in unhealthy behaviors through-out their lives had a great survival rate if they had a strong supportive community. It's a good read if you can find the time.
The book inspired me to set out in search of a healing community. It took a few years, but I found an 11th step (conscious contact with Higher Power) meeting that was wonderful! The people were spiritually earnest and very community oriented spending time together as often as possible before and after meetings, during holidays, special events, birthdays, and so on.
They were also members of other groups like A.A., Codependents Anonymous, and A Course in Miracles and we were all welcome to gravitate between them. The healing power that ensued is amazing, the results of which are still spreading out right here. Healthy and rewarding relationships is at the heart of life, click here for a post of my experience, strength, and hope. sure there is lots more to say on this subject so keeping checking in.
Much of the focus of this endeavor is on Higher Power, as expressed through nature, personal practice, prayer and meditation, and really all of our experiences. This is because one of the main benefits of having a Higher Power is acknowledging something greater than ourselves that we can focus on and yield to in loving service. Community works the same way as we set ourselves aside to serve the greater good of our families, friends, and other communities.
Perhaps it is because we were built to live in small communities of tribes, but now live amongst thousands or millions of others that we are so stressed, depressed, and self-possessed. Our western quest for individual gain and glory pales in comparison to many countries and cultures that value community above self. Cowboy Dharma is an appeal to the greater good, law, and truth of Higher Power and community, in the hope that together, we can be so much more together than we are alone.
Also see My Heart Goes Out Just The Same My Own Little World True Companion We Are Family