Day 5: Connection
We all experience feeling disconnected from our own lives at one point or another.
Can you recall a time where you felt like a stranger in your own life? You felt like you just didn’t fit in whether that be at the office, hanging out with friends, or in a larger scale: your own body. A complete disconnection to the environment around you.
Feeling disconnected is more common than ever with the pressures of social media, high-pressures at work, or even trials within our own home.
When we are disconnected emotionally and physically from our surroundings and self, we can feel stuck, negative, unsure, alone, and even depressed.
Long bouts of disconnection can keep us stuck in unhealthy situations and decision-making patterns. Many of us who have experienced depression or anxiety have felt disconnected for a long time.
The disconnect has kept us from chasing new goals and exploring the world around us. Connection revitalizes our sense of self and everyday interactions.
When we are connected, we are whole. We feel like we are living the highest quality of life possible. So are you ready to reconnect to those around you and yourself?
Read the full video transcription:
Hey, it’s Doug Cartwright and I’m the founder of The Daily Shifts and I’m going to help you find happiness and purpose in your life.
After using the techniques and practices I’ll talk about, you will love the person you’ve become and you’ll experience life at a higher level.
You are on the fifth day, day 5, of our happiness habits best week ever challenge.
Today (on our last day) we are talking about connection.
To unlock your true capabilities you must have a connection to yourself and your environment.
So what is Connection?
True connection is a deeper, meaningful, more intimate relationship with being. Whether that’s with friends, loved ones, your community and most relevant, yourself.
When you feel connected to yourself, others, and your environment you are supported, optimistic, and passionate, and more pleasant to be around. People will start to attract to you opening the doors to new opportunities and connections.
For example…
Think of a time when you had coffee or lunch with a close friend and you truly drop into a deep meaningful connection. When you left that meetup feeling validated and lighter from a fulfilling conversation.
We can also experience a connection to ourselves. Think about the last time you did something physically strenuous or learned something new. Did you observe moments of self-growth, and curiosity?
True connection with self means being in tune with your physical and emotional needs.
Connection to self allows us to be intentional with our choices in food, friends, health, and the way we spend our time.
Connection also involves paying attention and care to the world around us from a macro and micro levels.
Appreciating nature, engaging with our various day to day places of comfort and necessities such as our workplace, local coffee spot, or favorite park are all environmental connections.
The power of prioritizing connection in all facets of your existence is that you will live in a state of growth and avoid a fixed mindset approach to your life.
When you do this, it allows you to tap into your abilities, potential, and bring out the very best in yourself and in others.
Living in a state of connectedness means saying yes to new experiences, living with confidence, and spending your time with yourself and your surroundings.
Here are 3 ways to live in a state of connection, today:
ONE: Limit social media and create screen time boundaries in your life.
Social media breeds disconnect! Due to the nature of social media, we find ourselves in comparison mode, experiencing acute anxiety and jealousy.
Here’s a crazy statistic for you — 60% of social media users report lower levels of self-esteem. Chronic social media dependency will erode your connection to yourself and to others.
When we lack self-esteem, we lack self-confidence. This leads to the inability to try new things, communicate with others, and nurture our highest self.
So step away from the feed. Don’t feed into the fomo and get trapped in the comparison game.
By focusing less on what is happening online you’ll be able to intimately connect with the real world and your loved ones.
Two: Cultivate constant curiosity.
You can do this by committing to new hobbies and exploring creative ideas. This could be developing a new hobby that has always piqued your interest.
Cooking, gardening, yoga, singing, art, are all examples of a new hobby you can incorporate into your life today. These new experiences and self-education will help you feel more alive and in tune with your truest and best self.
Not only that, curiosity will replace insecurity and fear. So, what has sparked your curiosity recently!? This is your permission slip to chase that idea and learn more.
Three: Fight the need to be a critic, and instead practice compassion.
Compassion = connection. Practice empathy and kindness in your everyday life.
When we do this we can avoid spending energy judging others and in turn, this primes us to be more open to connecting with others and the planet.
How often have you met someone and something they say in your initial conversation immediately turns you off? So you decide not to pursue your future discussion or friendship?
We are all guilty of it. The truth of the matter is you may be standing in the way of an incredible friendship that you passed over because of a brief judgement you made. Thus, selling yourself short in the process.
Be aware of your tendencies or habits to make snap judgments. Fight against the knee jerk reaction to shut down and stop listening.
Don’t let judgment be your barrier to meaningful connection.
GROWTH CHALLENGE
So let’s talk about today’s growth challenge, which is: Look a stranger in the eye and give them a sincere compliment.
This actually will leave you both feeling great about yourselves.
I make it a goal to do this every single day.
Even this very morning I stood behind a woman in the grocery check out line with the coolest shade of purple hair I think I’ve ever seen.
I’m talking intergalactic hues of pink, purple, and blue. I seriously thought it was so rad, so I looked her in the eye and said: “Hey, I absolutely love your hair and It looks so good on you!”
Her entire face lit up and she broke out in a huge smile. She touched her hand to her heart and thanked me with so much warmth.
It felt so fulfilling to make someone so happy without wanting or needing anything in return.
We both walked out of that grocery store with a little pep in our step, appreciating one another for our different reasons.
I’m literally still carrying that happy energy with me right now, even hours after this encounter.
I wish for you to experience a true affinity to yourself, others, and environment.
You are so capable of divine connectedness. So look up from this screen and begin!
Thank you so much for watching today. If you learned something new, make sure you mention it in the comments below and post your progress on Facebook and nstagram with the hashtags #thedailyshifts and #bestweekeverchallenge
I cannot wait to see the person you’re becoming.
