Belonging to a group

Psychcentral is the only group I belong to and I was thinking about joining a group of some sort in person. Does anyone here belong to a group such as a church or a club and find that it helps you with your bipolar and/or overall health? I'm thinking of maybe joining a meditation group near me since meditation is good for almost everything and good for preventing mania. I get overwhelmed easily by a lot though like working too much, but it would be nice to do something.

I also am contemplating doing volunteer work at some point, but only if my boyfriend gets a higher paying job this summer so that way I can go part time.

There are only career based clubs at my college and they don't have a club for the program I am entering since only a small amount of people enter the program.

I do a lot of volunteer work for my community. And I go to a community mental health support group. I have found both, especially volunteering to be incredibly helpful. I am younger than most in my mental health group but still gain a lot out of the knowledge and experience they have to share.

I used to be a member of sports teams before the meds slowed me down too much, I used to enjoy that. I did used to do yoga and pilates classes too but moved and havent found a fitness club in my area. I'd say there will be one opening up soon through with the growth in the area, so Im hoping for good things in the future.

Im also interested in participating in my community garden when I am well enough again.

Its worth doing for your own mental health, and helping you with how to communicate well with others.

I find that hiking can be therapeutic. So as this applies to groups, I used to join ad hoc groups of people for hiking which were lead by an experience hiker that was familiar with the area.