Two for You — take two minutes to live and lead with intention
Episode 3.4
Research has linked social connections and relationships to our well-being. How can you make better and deeper connections when teams, friends and families live and work far away? Why not schedule a Virtual Coffee and reap the benefits of connecting face to face.
Resources
Learn more about the how and why of greater social connection:
- How to host a virtual coffee, tools for remote teams and more
- Social relationships and health: A flashpoint for health policy
Transcript
Note: Two for You written transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before referencing content in print.
[Denise] Hello and welcome to Two for You. By now I think we all know the importance of positive relationships and social connections to our well-being. In fact, there's lots of research out there showing how social connections positively affect our physical health, as in improving our immune system; our emotional health - reducing the impacts of stress; and our mental health - reducing the feeling of isolation. So we know how important these social connections are, so Lori and I are going to give you one tool that you can use to strengthen those social connections of the people not close by.
[Lori] Yes, we often think about the social connections and fostering that with people who are near us, but we also have people in our communities and our networks who are further away, whose relationship is important to us and you want to continue to foster and grow and keep alive, or people we want to connect with around a specific thing that may be happening in our lives. That's the first thing to think about when you think about a virtual coffee.
So number one, the "who." Who do you want to connect with? Maybe someone you haven't connected with, or somebody about a specific thing. Think about the "who."
Second is the virtual platform or the "how." So having the video connection like we are right now is important because it allows us to really connect - we can see each other's eyes, we can see facial expressions. It's more personal and human, you know people are present and really with you. So that's number two, "how" you want to connect - virtual platform.
And number three is encouraging people to come with a hot drink, right? The virtual coffee. So we talked about this last time - even just holding a hot drink in our hand helps us to be more generous and empathetic and have more compassion.
And lastly, consider the focus that you want to have - that's number four. So maybe it's a question that you want to think about or maybe some other way you want to be creative in the conversation. So think about those four things as you schedule your virtual coffee.
[Denise] This month, that's our challenge to you. Take the time to schedule a virtual coffee to improve your well-being and the well-being of those around you, as you live and lead with intention.